SHAS­TRI BOODAN

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

The Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) has passed away. In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, aged 69, died around 1 am on Sun­day 3 Au­gust 2025.

Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo, First Vice-Pres­i­dent of the NCIC, de­scribed Sen­a­tor Teemal’s pass­ing as a tremen­dous loss to the de­vel­op­ment of In­di­an cul­ture in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Man­ga­roo stat­ed that Teemal had been un­well over the past week and passed away at his home on Sankar Street, St Au­gus­tine.

“Sen­a­tor Teemal was a ded­i­cat­ed leader and a pas­sion­ate ad­vo­cate for cul­tur­al preser­va­tion and com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment,” Man­ga­roo said. “His com­mit­ment and ser­vice have left a last­ing im­pact on our na­tion.”

Man­ga­roo not­ed that the ex­ec­u­tive of the NCIC would con­vene to dis­cuss the forth­com­ing Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions, sched­uled for Oc­to­ber. In the in­ter­im, the NCIC’s con­sti­tu­tion pro­vides that the First Vice-Pres­i­dent will act as Pres­i­dent un­til a new Pres­i­dent is elect­ed in April 2026.

Teemal had been ac­tive­ly in­volved with the NCIC for more than two decades and served mul­ti­ple terms as Chair­man of the Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions dur­ing his time on the ex­ec­u­tive.

Pro­fes­sion­al­ly, Teemal was a Civ­il and Struc­tur­al En­gi­neer and Project Man­ag­er with 37 years of ex­pe­ri­ence. His ar­eas of ex­per­tise in­clud­ed project man­age­ment, con­tract ad­min­is­tra­tion, con­struc­tion im­ple­men­ta­tion, and wa­ter and waste­water en­gi­neer­ing. His clients in­clud­ed the Min­istry of Works, NIPDEC, WASA, and the Gas­par Grande Wa­ter Sup­ply project. He was al­so the Prin­ci­pal of Team En­gi­neer­ing Sys­tems Lim­it­ed.

Teemal was first ap­point­ed as an In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor in 2020 and served in the 11, 12, and 13 Re­pub­li­can Par­lia­ments of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

He is sur­vived by his wife, Gee­ta, and their two adult daugh­ters.