For­mer po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) Bas­deo Pan­day and at­tor­ney gen­er­al Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj will mount one stage next Sun­day, to ad­dress the plight and con­cerns of for­mer sug­ar work­ers and cane farm­ers.The for­mer sug­ar work­ers and cane farm­ers are known as the UNC's base sup­port­ers.The meet­ing will be held at Rien­zi Com­plex, Cou­va, at 2 pm.The duo will dis­cuss ben­e­fits promised to the farm­ers and is­sues that are af­fect­ing them.

Oth­er speak­ers will in­clude Nir­van Ma­haraj, pres­i­dent gen­er­al of the All Trinidad Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union, Thomas Sotil­lio, sec­re­tary of the for­mer Cane Farm­ers' As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T, and Mick­ela Pan­day.The for­mer work­ers ar­gued that the pol­i­cy of the UNC has al­ways been that for­mer sug­ar work­ers and cane farm­ers should be com­pen­sat­ed fol­low­ing the clo­sure of Ca­roni 1975 Ltd.

The for­mer lead­ers of the sug­ar es­tate and fac­to­ry work­ers union, and the for­mer Cane Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion have asked Pan­day and Ma­haraj to ad­dress them, and to as­sist them in get­ting the present Gov­ern­ment to ho­n­our the UNC pol­i­cy for sug­ar work­ers and cane farm­ers.Pan­day pub­licly stat­ed that he had been in­un­dat­ed with calls and re­quests from par­ty sup­port­ers to in­ter­vene in the UNC "to re­store the par­ty to its pris­tine glo­ry."

He al­so ad­mit­ted that if UNC sup­port­ers want him to con­test the UNC's up­com­ing in­ter­nal elec­tions as chair­man. he would do so. Pan­day said that he con­sid­ered it his du­ty as founder of the par­ty, to as­sist in res­cu­ing it.Ma­haraj, who said he has no in­ter­est in elec­toral pol­i­tics, is in the process of launch­ing a non po­lit­i­cal or­gan­i­sa­tion called "Democ­ra­cy Watch," which will be in­volved in ed­u­cat­ing the pop­u­la­tion on pol­i­tics.