The with­draw­al of First Cit­i­zens Bank (FCB) from this year’s Di­vali Na­gar has added to the spon­sor­ship chal­lenges fac­ing the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC), just days be­fore the an­nu­al cel­e­bra­tions be­gin.

Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jear­lean John says the Gov­ern­ment’s Re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion Blue­print, an­nounced last year af­ter the Bud­get, is “se­ri­ous­ly on­go­ing.”

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath yes­ter­day re­fused to rule out pri­vati­sa­tion or a pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ship for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Sol­id Waste Man­age­ment Com­pa­ny (SWM­COL), say­ing the state en­ter­prise’s busi­ness mod­el must change to re­duce its bur­den on tax­pay­ers.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath says the On-the-Job Train­ing (OJT) Pro­gramme has been op­er­at­ing on “au­topi­lot” for years, with sev­er­al key po­si­tions va­cant, in­clud­ing those of ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor and deputy ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor.

The fa­ther of three men await­ing tri­al for the mur­der of Se­nior Coun­sel Dana See­ta­hal has been dis­charged on an ex­tor­tion charge af­ter de­lays in pros­e­cut­ing the case.

A po­lice of­fi­cer fac­ing cor­rup­tion charges has lost his law­suit chal­leng­ing the de­ci­sion to by­pass him for pro­mo­tion.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is warn­ing the pub­lic against tak­ing vig­i­lante ac­tion against sex of­fend­ers who may be liv­ing in their com­mu­ni­ties.

Eight men have been ar­rest­ed in con­nec­tion with Tues­day’s rob­bery of a woman in the car park of Adam’s Bagels on Sad­dle Road, Mar­aval.

Broth­er Valenti­no, whose songs made a force­ful case for equal­i­ty, Black iden­ti­ty and the con­cerns of or­di­nary peo­ple, died yes­ter­day. He was 85.

Three years ago, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s civ­il avi­a­tion board, the Jun­ta de Aviación Civ­il (JAC), grant­ed ul­tra-low-cost car­ri­er Ara­jet Air­lines per­mis­sion to op­er­ate flights be­tween the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has promised to ac­cel­er­ate the re­place­ment of age­ing wa­ter pipelines this fi­nan­cial year, as re­cur­ring leaks con­tin­ue to dam­age roads in Diego Mar­tin and Mar­aval.

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has promised to work with pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­nies to set­tle out­stand­ing pay­ments owed by the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), ac­knowl­edg­ing that some firms went three to four years with­out be­ing paid.