Akash Sama­roo

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is chal­leng­ing the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) to stage its own In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade, stress­ing that her Gov­ern­ment has not re­strict­ed the right to free move­ment on Au­gust 31.

At a me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day at the Op­po­si­tion Leader’s Of­fice in Port-of-Spain, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les re­newed her call for a scaled-down In­de­pen­dence Day event in the in­ter­est of pa­tri­o­tism and for small busi­ness­es that de­pend on the day for earn­ings. Beck­les al­so again ques­tioned why the Prime Min­is­ter has not per­son­al­ly ad­dressed the na­tion on the de­ci­sion to re­place the mil­i­tary pa­rade and re­lat­ed fes­tiv­i­ties with a day of prayer and re­flec­tion.