The minister and members of the Mashramani Committee have already met security officials who gave assurances that all necessary measures will be in place for the events to be trouble-free, she reported at a news conference at her office in Georgetown yesterday.

Teixeira noted too that there is a flier in circulation claiming that the Calypso quarter finals due to be held in Linden this evening "will not be held because of power outages".

That was "fictitious", she said, adding that it was part of a machinery to instill fear in people so the event will not gain full participation.

The flier, which the minister displayed during the news conference, has no signature and has not been identified with any particular organisation.

The minister is urging the general public to ignore any such notices.

She said if the circulation of any such fliers should continue during the course of events leading up to the main Republic anniversary celebrations, persons should contact Mash Coordinator, Mr. Lennox Canterbury.

She assured that tonight's event at Linden will go on as planned, although there are some problems with electricity supply in the town.

Twenty-six calypsonians will be competing for the crown and the Linden Power Company has assured that there will be no interruption in power supply during the event.

However, standby generators will be in place in the event of any outages, the minister reported.

Teixeira said members of the Mash committees of the various regions met Wednesday and are satisfied with the way things are going.

About $16M has been allocated for the ministry to stage the events for this year.

She said the auditions for the Calypso competitions have gone well.

The road-march songs are being played and several are of a high quality, she noted.

As part of Mashramani celebrations in Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands), a jamboree was held at Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara last weekend and there was tremendous participation, she said.

The semi-finals for the Calypso Competitions are scheduled at the Sophia Exhibition Centre, Georgetown on February 8, while the finals would be staged at Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast on February 15.

Teixeira also announced that Banks DIH is sponsoring the entire Junior Calypso competition, but the costumes would not be designed to advertise alcoholic products.

The company would be using the event to advertise Coca Cola, she said.

Contestants for the competition will be drawn from Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and 10.

The Children's Regional Costume competition, which is under way, is on schedule and will continue during next week. The finals will be held February 12-14 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Georgetown.

The Children's Parade will be on Saturday, February 15.

Teixeira said the ministry would be hosting the Brazilian Youth Choir, the `Canaries of the Amazon', which would be performing in the last week leading up to the Republic Day celebrations on February 23.

Celebrations will be held in Corriverton on February 24 while Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice) and Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) will hold their Mashramani celebrations the following weekend.