Ramadhar: Give $5m ex-gratia payments to Paria divers' families

ATTORNEY Prakash Ramadhar is calling for ex-gratia payments of $5 million to each of the families of the divers killed in the Paria diving tragedy.

Ramadhar, who represented members of two of those families, made this call at a news conference at his law office on Lord Street, San Fernando on January 22.

He believed this would be an appropriate thing for Paria Fuel Trading Company to do as it had a duty of care towards the divers.

Ramadhar said this was mentioned in the Paria Commission of Enquiry (CoE) report, which was laid in Parliament on January 19.

The news conference was held to address the contents of the report

Ramadhar urged payments be made to the families rather than engage in unnecessary litigation

He said legal action would be taken against Paria if it does not act on this offer to make the ex-gratia payments within a reasonable time.

Ramadhar disagreed with recommendations in the report that suggested it was difficult to bring charges against any individual with respect to the tragedy.

He believes it is possible to bring charges against members of Paria's incident command team for the actions they took or did not take to rescue the four divers who died.

On February 25, 2022, five LMCS divers – Christopher Boodram, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Rishi Nagassar – were repairing a 30-inch pipeline at Paria's Pointe-a-Pierre facility when they were sucked into it.

Only Boodram escaped.

Ramadhar said now is the opportunity for the top officials of Paria and people in higher authority to take corrective action on behalf of the divers' families and ensure this tragedy is never repeated.