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The Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee is call­ing on po­lice to al­low its 2026 fes­tiv­i­ties to run their full course.

Com­mit­tee chair­man Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Maraj said of­fi­cers have de­vel­oped a habit of shut­ting down cel­e­bra­tions be­fore the sched­uled time. He spoke to Guardian Me­dia on Sat­ur­day as the Com­mit­tee launched its 2026 sea­son at the Cou­va Joy­lan­ders Pan The­atre on Rail­way Road.

“We need prop­er col­lab­o­ra­tion; we want a gen­uine part­ner­ship with law en­force­ment,” Maraj said. He not­ed that even when no in­ci­dents oc­cur, po­lice still “lock down the mas”, claim­ing they are ex­haust­ed af­ter work­ing for two days straight. “This is un­fair to the mas­quer­aders,” he added, say­ing par­tic­i­pants in­vest sig­nif­i­cant time and mon­ey to bring the event to life.