Con­tro­ver­sy erupt­ed on Mon­day night, as of­fi­cers from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) swooped down on the Cou­va Car­ni­val Cen­tre and or­dered of­fi­cials of the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee (CCC) to shut down all op­er­a­tions with three bands still to per­form on stage.

At 11 pm, an of­fi­cer who gave his name as Sgt Samuel, in­struct­ed CCC chair­man Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Maraj to shut down all op­er­a­tions, al­though one band was po­si­tioned on the west­ern ramp of the stage ready to pa­rade be­fore the judges and there was a size­able crowd on hand.

Sgt Samuel said he was act­ing on the in­struc­tions of the Car­ni­val Gold Com­man­der, Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin, to shut down Car­ni­val op­er­a­tions by 10 pm, adding that Cou­va had been al­lowed to go be­yond that time.

A vis­i­bly up­set Maraj told the of­fi­cers it was un­fair and un­ac­cept­able for them to cut off the cel­e­bra­tions, as there were still three bands to go on stage and there were no dis­tur­bances in Cou­va.

“This ac­tion is com­plete­ly un­ac­cept­able and un­fair, since the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee held two meet­ings with the head of the TTPS Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Sr Supt Bhag­wan­deen, Supt Reyes and In­sp Khan, and it was clear­ly agreed that Cou­va Car­ni­val would be able to com­plete its Mon­day Nite Mas just be­fore 12 mid­night, as long as there were no dis­tur­bances or un­to­ward in­ci­dents in the Cou­va area,” Maraj said.

“We have had a very won­der­ful Car­ni­val so far with ab­solute­ly no in­ci­dents. It has been very safe un­der the watch­ful eyes of the po­lice. For the po­lice to bring the Pa­rade of Bands to a com­plete halt is mind-bog­gling. I can’t be­lieve this is hap­pen­ing in light of the agree­ment with the se­nior of­fi­cers of the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion. There are three bands still wait­ing to per­form. They paid their reg­is­tra­tion fees and trans­porta­tion to come here tonight and they can’t even go on stage to try to re­cov­er some of their ex­pens­es. And we al­so have a large crowd en­joy­ing them­selves with no mishaps what­so­ev­er. I can’t be­lieve this is re­al­ly hap­pen­ing in this day and age.”

He added that it was iron­ic that Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion chair­man Pe­ter Kan­hai had vis­it­ed the site on­ly two hours be­fore and com­mend­ed the po­lice and the com­mit­tee for over­see­ing a safe and en­joy­able Car­ni­val.

CCC ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber and Cou­va Com­mu­ni­ty Po­lice Sta­tion Coun­cil pres­i­dent Ezekiel Clarke said it was in­sult­ing to the mas­quer­aders, the com­mit­tee, the thou­sands who were en­joy­ing the mas and the peo­ple of Cen­tral Trinidad to treat the cul­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go in such a dis­re­spect­ful man­ner.

He sug­gest­ed that in the fu­ture, all dis­cus­sions on Car­ni­val should be held with the very high­est ranks of the TTPS, since they have the au­thor­i­ty to dis­re­gard any agree­ment made by the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion and the CCC as they have done with the Mon­day Nite Mas.

Maraj apol­o­gised to the crowd for the shut­down, adding that it was out of the com­mit­tee’s hands.

He said the com­mit­tee would have to de­cide how to treat with the re­sults of the com­pe­ti­tion, since the dis­rup­tion of the event had raised cer­tain is­sues.