Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

The Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal will start re­ceiv­ing its first in­take of young pa­tients in the com­ing weeks. Cou­va South MP Bar­ry Padarath an­nounced this when he de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress at Bach­he Kaand 2025 – The Chil­dren’s Chap­ter.

The event took place on Sat­ur­day at the ISHA Ashram, Isha Heights, Sew­dass Road, Freeport.

Padarath, who is the Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, al­so said com­put­ers for stu­dents be­ing pro­cured through TSTT should ar­rive in T&T by De­cem­ber.

Speak­ing to a gath­er­ing made up most­ly of young peo­ple, Padarath urged them to step up, make their voic­es heard, and be­come lead­ers of to­mor­row.

He said he is not afraid to de­fend the UNC or the peo­ple of T&T be­cause he re­mains un­at­tached to the trap­pings of of­fice. He told the au­di­ence this gives him the plat­form and strength to speak plain­ly.

“Many times peo­ple ask us, how do you do it, why you big and you bold and you bad in­side and out­side of the par­lia­ment. It is far too long we have adopt­ed a cul­ture of be­ing weak, stand­ing for noth­ing or stand­ing for lit­tle and on­ly look­ing af­ter self-in­ter­est and there­fore as a com­mu­ni­ty, this event, Bach­he Kaand, I feel very in­spired by it know­ing not just our dhar­ma in terms of our re­li­gious teach­ings but al­so our dhar­ma in terms of how we live our lives."

“One day Jear­lean John told me, she said I like you Mr Padarath, I asked why, she said be­cause in par­lia­ment when they shout at you, you shout back, she said when they jump up, you and all jump up. You must have the fire in your bel­ly, peo­ple amongst us must not de­ter­mine acad­e­mia to mean in­tel­li­gence. In­tel­li­gence is about ed­u­ca­tion in the books, yes, but it must be about stand­ing up for some­thing that is right be­cause it is the right thing to do.”