SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali@guardian.co.tt

The San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (SGRC) is dis­tanc­ing it­self from giv­ing any fu­ner­al agency per­mis­sion to bury 56 bod­ies at the Cu­mu­to Ceme­tery on Sat­ur­day.

Two work­ers from a pop­u­lar fu­ner­al home who were found dis­pos­ing of the bod­ies have been de­tained by the po­lice.

The Cu­mu­to Ceme­tery is one of sev­er­al bur­ial grounds vest­ed by the cor­po­ra­tion.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), in a press re­lease, stat­ed that pre­lim­i­nary in­di­ca­tions sug­gest that this may be a case in­volv­ing the un­law­ful dis­pos­al of un­claimed corpses.

To­day, the SGRC will hold an emer­gency meet­ing to dis­cuss the po­lice’s grim dis­cov­ery of the bod­ies-50 of whom were in­fants– and what mea­sures can be tak­en to prop­er­ly se­cure its 22 grave­yards along the North­east­ern re­gion.

A source close to the SGRC told Guardian Me­dia that the cor­po­ra­tion would con­firm ceme­tery space avail­abil­i­ty for buri­als.

The coun­try’s 14 cor­po­ra­tions are re­spon­si­ble for the de­vel­op­ment and main­te­nance of ceme­ter­ies.

“Just as how it was news to the pub­lic do­main...it was news to us al­so. I can tell you cat­e­gor­i­cal­ly that we gave no per­mis­sion for the bur­ial,” a source close to the cor­po­ra­tion told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day.

De­scrib­ing the sit­u­a­tion as dis­turb­ing, the source said a meet­ing will be held at the cor­po­ra­tion to­day.

“To­mor­row the cor­po­ra­tion will have an emer­gency meet­ing to dis­cuss the mat­ter with the cor­po­rate sec­re­tary, CEO, ASP and chair­man Ken­wyn Phillip,” the source said yes­ter­day.

At a meet­ing last week, the source said, it was dis­cussed that the Work Su­per­vi­sor de­part­ment in­stall gates at its ceme­ter­ies and recre­ation­al grounds.

The cor­po­ra­tion is al­so in the process of re­view­ing its ceme­tery keep­ers.

“Some of them (ceme­tery keep­ers) have been delin­quent in ex­e­cut­ing what they are sup­posed to do,” the source said.

The source said where delin­quen­cy is found, ac­tion will be tak­en.

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, San­gre Grande South coun­cil­lor Calvin Seecha­ran, who is chair­man for recre­ation­al grounds and open spaces at the SGRC, de­clined com­ment.

Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen al­so failed to re­spond to a What­sApp mes­sage.