Port-of-Spain – Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar last week raised questions over PNM Senator Rohan Sinanan’s ownership of land and monies received following State acquisition for the Cunapo Bridge project.
At a UNC meeting at in Sangre Grande last Monday, Persad-Bissessar presented a deed showing Sinanan was the owner of lands that were acquired for the Cunapo Bridge construction. The deed was prepared by attorney Gillian Lucky and dated January 19, 2009. It stated the lands were sold to Sinanan for (TT) $1.9 million.
Persad-Bissessar wanted to know when Sinanan cut a ribbon in Sangre Grande to officially open the Cunapo Bridge whether he had declared his interest in the project.
Persad-Bissessar said the Cunapo River channel that ran under the old Cunapo Bridge was realigned to run under the new bridge, adding the option chosen for the project was the acquisition of land from two private owners. It was done so the river now has to pass through the land of the private owners, and was a project of the Ministry of Works and Transport, which Sinanan heads.

Said Persad-Bissessar: “Tonight I call on Rohan Sinanan to confirm or deny the contents of this deed that is registered in the Ministry of Legal Affairs that indicates he is the owner of the land. I am asking Rohan Sinanan whether at the time the decision was taken to acquire the lands whether he was part of those deliberations.”
Additionally: “I call on Rohan Sinanan to state whether he received any money for those lands. And if so, what is the total sum of monies that was paid to him by the State?”
Persad-Bissessar noted while the Curepe Interchange is due to be finished later this year, the negotiations for the acquisition of the land are yet to be completed.
Responding the Persad-Bissessar, Sinanan confirmed ownership of private lands in Sangre Grande that were acquired by the State for the construction of the Cunapo Bridge.
He said this was not new information as he had declared his interest previously, and it was also known to the Integrity Commission. Sinanan said the land was actually acquired in 2008.
He added the plan for the project was decided before he was appointed Minister, and the acquisition resulted in a depreciation of the land.
Said Sinanan: “Nobody wants a watercourse passing through their land because… it depreciates the land for any major value after that. [If] the State said that is for public purpose to alleviate flooding in the area you cannot fight the State on that.”
He added: “What [the State] will pay you [is] just for the piece the river passes through, and they will pay you at their rates, not the rates that you may think it is. No Minister has a say in that because that is for the public purpose – people divert rivers away from their land.”
Sinanan also said his Ministry does not deal with land acquisition, as this is done by the Commissioner of Valuations and Commissioner of State lands. He said the Ministry straightened a watercourse, and that brought about an alleviation of flooding.
“Unfortunately for me, they pass it through my land. It’s an unfortunate thing for me, not a benefit,” he said.
Sinanan said the Commissioner of State Lands will determine compensation for the land.
Additionally, “[You] cannot stop the project. The Ministry has nothing to do with that. No money was paid and like anything else they have their process that they go through. At the end of the day there is no benefit to me because even if you pay me for the piece of land, I would have lost because the commercial value has depreciated significantly.” He added the river was rerouted through the lands of several other people to ensure the area does not flood.

Port-of-Spain – Special Reserve Police officer Sharon Roop was last week awarded (TT) $185,000 after the High Court ruled in November 2018 Commissioner Stephen Williams had breached her constitutional rights to wear the hijab while in uniform.
Last week Justice Margaret Mohammed made the order at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain when the matter was recalled for an assessment of damages hearing. Roop was awarded damages including aggravated damages in the sum of $125,000 and vindicatory damages in the sum of $60,000.
Her team of attorneys, led by Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan, had attempted to convince the court that the proper award to the officer should be between $200,000 and $250,000 in compensatory damages, and between $300,000 and $350,000 in vindicatory damages.
However, the State resisted those submissions by her attorneys, arguing that any award of compensation must be fact-dependent, and must be no more than is necessary to give recognition and value to the importance to Roop’s constitutional rights and “emotional distress, pain, anguish and severe inconvenience” after she was denied the right to wear her hijab on the job.
The case arose after Roop wrote to Williams requesting she be allowed to wear a hijab together with her police uniform. Her request was ignored for about two years. Having not heard from the commissioner's office, Roop retained the services of Ramlogan and a pre-action protocol letter to the office of the commissioner. With no favourable response received, Ramlogan took further legal action in the High Court.
In her ruling last November, Justice Mohammed found Roop's constitutional rights had been infringed in not allowing her to wear her hijab while in uniform. The judge also struck down the long-standing rule against the head-wear by law enforcement officers.
In her ruling, Justice Mohammed said the intention of the framers of the Constitution was for an “evolving plural society” where religious symbols were permitted.

Port-of-Spain – The UNC made inroads in the local government elections on Monday, breaking through the PNM’s hold on San Fernando, winning three of the nine seats previously held by the PNM.
Marcus Girdharrie and Kern Ramdhin won the Vistabella South and Marabella West electoral districts, while Rishi Balramsingh won in Les Efforts West/La Romaine, defeating Alliyah Baksh of the PNM. A recount is set for a fourth seat in the Cocoyea/Tarouba electoral district, where the PNM’s Teresa Lynch won by one vote.
Although disappointed by the results, PNM coordinator and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein said, “We are still in charge of the San Fernando City Corporation. We won six, we lost three. And we are going to be fair to everyone, to every citizen in San Fernando.”
Attorney General and MP for San Fernando West Faris Al-Rawi said the loss of three seats was not unexpected, that the Les Efforts West/La Romaine was traditionally a UNC seat.
Said Al-Rawi: “This particular seat, we actually won once in 26 years. Anderson Williams won that seat in 2016 for the first time in 26 years. So, it is traditionally a UNC stronghold in that sense.”
He also said the closure of Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre plant had affected Marabella South and East.
“The issue of Petrotrin is quite close to people’s hearts. So I am not surprised in any way or in any fashion; nor am I disheartened,” he said.
Al-Rawi also attributed the PNM defeat in Marabella partly to the Movement for Social Justice candidates, which drew some PNM votes.
UNC deputy leader David Lee said while the party had made inroads into Sangre Grande and Tunapuna corporations, and solidified its standing in Rio Claro/ Mayaro, it had the biggest gains in San Fernando.

Port-of-Spain – Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley put a positive spin on the PNM’s performance in the local government elections on Monday, declaring the party had won 71 out of 139 electoral districts, despite ending up with a 7-7 tie for the 14 regional corporations. The PNM suffered setbacks from the UNC in the two marginal corporations of Sangre Grande and Siparia, winning just three seats each to the UNC’s five.
However, Rowley did express some disappointment, noting the PNM did not pick up seats “in one or two areas where we had hoped to improve our position”.
He added: “But while we are disappointed we did not pick up in that area, which was the Siparia effort, we are not surprised. We are quite pleased that we have in fact won the most seats.”
He thanked supporters who campaigned, rallied, and voted for the party, declaring it had won outright in Arima, Diego Martin, Port-of-Spain, and Point Fortin. The PNM won six of the nine seats in San Fernando, held an eleven to five edge in Tunapuna/Piarco, and won 13 to one in San Juan/Laventille.
“So we have won seven corporations in very much similar vein in 2016, while we have dropped a couple of seats in-between here and there,” Rowley said.
The PNM did remarkably well to maintain their position, he added.
“We had to fight hard to maintain our position. We would have been more excited if we had made some breakthroughs,” he said, adding it had been a difficult campaign.

Port of Spain – Colin Robinson of the Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation (CAISO) has accused Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh of “moral hypocrisy” in an HIV campaign.
Robinson said Deyalsingh is standing in the way of high-risk people preventing themselves from contracting the virus by refusing to implement a policy that will allow HIV-negative people to be given the drugs.
Robinson, a Newsday columnist, said for yet another year, as World AIDS Day is commemorated (on December 2), Deyalsingh has refused to implement Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) as a regular part of the ministry's HIV/Aids health campaign.
PrEP is a combination of drugs which lowers the risk of a HIV-negative person getting the disease. CAISO and other like-minded organisations have been advancing this as a preventative measure. The drugs are available in TT but only for people who are HIV-positive.
“You cannot go to a pharmacy and buy the drugs in TT. You have to get them through the government – and the government will not give it to you unless you are HIV-positive.
“There is a global and regional acceptance for PrEP which has already been implemented in Bahamas, Barbados and Guyana.
"But Deyalsingh is holding firm to his opinion, advanced to media a few years ago at a UN meeting, that this will encourage irresponsible behaviour,” Robinson said.
He said implementing this measure does not require legislation but a decision by the minister which could save lives.
“We acknowledge the great work the MOH is doing for HIV advocacy – but not on the issue of PrEP," he said. PrEP is really an important tool for the at-high-risk community.
"Ayanna Webster-Roy (minister with responsibility for gender and child affairs), in her message on World AIDS Day, talks about young people and HIV, but nothing about communities that want to save their own lives. We want to sound nice and smart and committed without doing the real work and enacting the real policies that will get us there.”
Robinson said after World AIDS Day, "I keep shaking my head and write nasty posts on social media, because we are not really empowering communities to stop HIV. We are not empowering the communities who want to protect themselves because they may not have a condom at that particular moment, but if they are actually exposed, they will not get the virus, because the drugs are already in the system.”
He said, going forward CAISO and others will continue to advocate for the ministry to make the drugs available as the infrastructure already exists globally to provide the framework and routine to administer the PrEP programme. He said USAID an other international partners are standing by ready to help with implementing it.

Port-of-Spain – Well-known in Trinidad and Tobago and abroad for his soulful renditions of songs by Mohamed Rafi and Kishore Kumar, singer ‘Ras’ Nancoo Singh died at his Rambert Village, Palmiste home in south Trinidad on November 27. He was 73 years old, and had been ailing for some time with liver disease.
His left behind the legacy of an eminent singer and artist who will long be remembered for, among his many other renditions, a haunting interpretation of ‘Chingari Koi Bhadke’ from the 1972 movie, Amar Prem, sung by Kishore Kumar, with music by R.D. Burman, the song’s memorable lyrics by Anand Bakshi.
The early sparks that lit the fire of Singh’s career in Indian singing started in the 1960s. Despite a lack of formal voice training, his singing began attracting attention in cultural circuits with renditions of Bollywood film songs during performances with the Sawan Bahar Orchestra, a band that hailed from Hermitage Village, San Fernando, in south Trinidad.
Later, Singh appeared several times in what was then the prominent Indian talent show Mastana Bahar, the pioneer television programme showcasing Indo-Caribbean talents back in the 1970s. Also at this time, he was making appearances at religious functions singing bhajans in Hindu temples. He was a devotee of Lord Shiva, and was a prominent player in the Ramleela celebrations leading up to Diwali, but retired 2013 when he was diagnosed with liver problems.
Along with Pundit Abhedanand Sharma, Singh continued visiting temples singing bhajans, despite his illness, until he became bedridden over a year ago. He was also a member of well-known Indian music bands, among them Dil-E-Nadan, Mello Bugs, D. Rampersad, and Zeetaz.
Singh’s children Andra, Andy, Ian, and Ryan have all followed in their father’s footsteps, and are themselves today notable singers of chutney and Bollywood songs.
Writing in Facebook to celebrate her uncle’s life, Singh’s niece Rashmie Singh said the music industry in Trinidad and Tobago has lost an icon with her uncle’s passing.
She added: “Uncle has been the local voice of Kishore Kumar for as long as I remember, since the days of Mastana Bahar. I remember my mom cheering him on, and being so small and ignorant, I was fascinated by this ‘Rasta’ singing Indian songs with that soulful sweet voice… my mom said he got [the name ‘Ras’] because his hair was a ‘Ras’.”
Singh was also well-known and easily recognised by his ten-foot long, swirls of grey hair, which had not seen a pair of scissors since adulthood. According to the anecdotes as his niece noted, Singh was fondly called ‘Ras’, the nickname a shortened form of the word ‘Rastafarian’, which was given to him due to the ‘dreadlock’ length of his hair. The hairstyle of long, plaited locks is worn by members practising the faith of Rastafarianism.
Also expressing condolences over Singh’s passing, chutney singer Nermal ‘Massive’ Gosine noted the East Indian community in Trinidad and Tobago had suffered a great loss.
PRO of the National Council of Indian Culture, Surujdeo Mangaroo, echoed Gosine, saying Singh’s death was also a great loss to the music industry in Trinidad and Tobago, the wider Caribbean, and in North America. Mangaroo said he followed Singh’s career as a young man, and the singer inspired him to become involved in cultural activities. “He was one of Trinidad’s leading Bollywood singers of yesteryear,” Mangaroo said.
Rishi Gayadeen, leader of the Gayatones Orchestra, said it was always a pleasure to perform alongside Singh.
“He was bent on producing the best performance for his live audience,” Gayadeen said.
Member of Parliament for Oropouche in southern Trinidad, Dr Roodal Moonilal, also extended condolences to the family, saying the country had lost a great son of the soil.
Singh has left to mourn his wife of 52 years, Gloria, and children Andra, Andy, Ian and Ryan.

Port-of-Spain – A fundraising concert to assist with medical expenses for Rennie Ramnarine of the chutney crossover band Dil-e-Nadan will be held on December 15 at the Gasparillo Hindu Mandir in Trinidad. The event will feature Ramnarine’s band, along with local entertainers Satnarine Ragoo, Anil Bheem, Veejai Ramkissoon, Devanand Gatoo, and others. Ramnarine is the band’s guitarist and a vocalist.
In September, the family made a public appeal for help to save Ramnarine’s life following diagnosis of end-stage renal failure. He needs a kidney transplant, and now has a few months left to live.
Maria Seenath-Ramnarine, wife of the sick musician, indicated in a Facebook post that many donors have come forward, but none has so far been a match for blood or tissue type. Seenath-Ramnarine noted neither her husband’s brothers Raymond and Richard, well-known Dil-e-Nadan band members, also do not match and are unable to be donors.
Said Seenath-Ramnarine: “As you know, my husband has been diagnosed with late stages of renal failure. While dialysis can help somewhat, it is only a temporary solution. A kidney transplant is what is needed. Since we have appealed for a living kidney donation for my husband, many have stepped forward to donate. Time is against us, and we [are] currently [testing] at least two people per week. So far no one has been a match.”
Seenath-Ramnarine also noted an emergent issue regarding the sale of body organs, which she noted is illegal in Trinidad and Tobago and in developed countries. She added such an undertaking “is something that cannot be done under wraps”.
“Saving a life is a choice each individual makes, not to be done for fame or fortune but for the goodness that exists in people's hearts,” she said.
Additionally, Seenath-Ramnarine said her family has received an outpouring of love and support from relatives, friends, and fans, locally and from abroad. Also, that while kidney transplants are performed locally at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex at no cost, the medical costs are quite high for dialysis.
She also noted there would be no costs for a donor. All costs would be borne by the patient, since the donor “is already giving so much by saving a life”. She added her husband continues to remain positive that “he will be blessed with a donor”.
Anyone abroad wishing to help can message via WhatsApp at 1-868-798-1576, or 1-868-485-9300.