Paras Ra­moutar

Busi­ness­men in the Cou­va/Point Lisas area must be­come se­ri­ous part­ners in Cou­va Car­ni­val 2014 and be­yond, says Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Rudy In­dars­ingh.

Speak­ing at the prize-dis­tri­b­u­tion func­tion for the 2013 cel­e­bra­tions at his Cou­va South con­stituen­cy of­fice on Sat­ur­day, In­dars­ingh said: "Cou­va con­tin­ues to im­prove on the qual­i­ty and pre­sen­ta­tion of its Car­ni­val and oth­er shows re­lat­ed to Car­ni­val, but there is need for big­ger fi­nan­cial in­jec­tion in the cel­e­bra­tions as the $330,000 sub­ven­tion giv­en to the Cou­va Car­ni­val Im­prove­ment Com­mit­tee is not enough to meet es­ca­lat­ing costs and de­mands for big­ger prizes."

He al­so called for a steel­pan com­pe­ti­tion next year as he pre­dicts that the event can break bar­ri­ers in the cul­tur­al are­na.In­dra Charles copped the Band the Year prize, while Hel­lon Fran­cis took the ca­lyp­so ti­tle. Charles Red­head won the first prize for J'Ourvert and Lenore Singh was de­clared Car­ni­val Queen 2013.

Chair­man of the Cou­va Car­ni­val Im­prove­ment Com­mitte Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal said the event has come a long way and, "what we have seen over the years from the par­tic­i­pa­tion of mas­quer­aders and pa­trons, it has come to stay and can on­ly get big­ger and big­ger."Ra­jbal al­so called for more cor­po­rate in­ter­ven­tion in the Car­ni­val pro­gramme.

"Cou­va Car­ni­val can take a lead­er­ship role in T&T's Car­ni­val in years to come...I would like to see the day when Cou­va Car­ni­val is to­tal­ly sup­port­ed by the cor­po­rate sec­tor," he said.