Padarath to play mas as some ministers, PNM members sit out Carnival

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath will be play­ing mas in Bliss to­day, while Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment leader Pen­ny Beck­les is ex­pect­ed to join Ari­ma’s J’Ou­vert and Mon­day mas. How­ev­er, sev­er­al oth­er UNC Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters and PNM mem­bers will not be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the mas.

Padarath is a vet­er­an mas­quer­ad­er, hav­ing played with Poi­son, Tribe, and Lost Tribe.

His daugh­ter Se­jal ap­peared in Jam­jay Pro­duc­tions’ band dur­ing last Sat­ur­day’s chil­dren’s pa­rade.

Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kadi­jah Ameen will be “on the road,” work­ing with the Na­tion­al Pro­gramme for the Up­keep of Pub­lic Spaces, which is re­spon­si­ble for prepar­ing and clean­ing pub­lic ar­eas for Car­ni­val.

Oth­er min­is­ters, in­clud­ing Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence Min­is­ter Do­minic Smith and Min­is­ter in Hous­ing Phillip Alexan­der, will spend the day with fam­i­ly. Some will re­main in their con­stituen­cies or at home.

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Roodal Mooni­lal, who is in Guyana at­tend­ing an en­er­gy con­fer­ence, said yes­ter­day, “Some of us will have to miss the Car­ni­val fes­tiv­i­ties, but that’s what we signed up for—hard work. And as they say, we’ll ‘gie dem per­for­mance.’”

Op­po­si­tion Leader Beck­les is fi­nal­is­ing plans to par­tic­i­pate in Ari­ma’s J’Ou­vert this morn­ing and Mon­day mas lat­er to­day. She is al­so ex­pect­ed to take a “jump up” with All Stars Steel­band in Port of Spain to­mor­row.

Sev­er­al oth­er PNM MPs, sen­a­tors, and par­ty of­fi­cials will sit out the mas, choos­ing to spend the day at home or with fam­i­ly. San Fer­nan­do East MP Bri­an Man­ning will be present in San Fer­nan­do.

Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin didn’t im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond on her plans.