Even though Guard and Emergency Branch (GEB) police responded to disperse their protest on Friday, members of the Green Band Maxi Taxi Association and Claxton Bay residents weren’t fearful of suffering the same fate as protesters in the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain, on January 16.
The maxi-taxi drivers and residents teamed up to burn debris from 5am as they protested over the condition of a portion of the Southern Main Road near Daisy Road in Claxton Bay.
But even though GEB and fire officers responded to clear the debris at 7 am, the protesters were adamant their voices would be heard.
In a video circulating on social media, one protester even dared acting police commissioner Mc Donald Jacob to try to repeat the scenes of January 16, when police used tear gas to break up the crowd.
He said, “If this matter is not fixed, we are going to continue to protest. If it’s not by fire, we’ll protest by the finger.
“I am telling the acting commissioner of police to send tear gas…you will bring tear gas, we will bring natural gas from Point Lisas. You send tear gas, we not backing down.”
protesters were still on the scene when Newsday visited after 10 am as officers kept a watchful eye.
Several protesters were warned to adhere to the public health regulations such as proper mask wearing and not drinking alcohol in public.
Police also filmed protesters and the Newsday team.
[caption id="attachment_935734" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Drivers try to make their way around burning debris and potholes during a fiery protest over the dilapidated condition of the Southern Main Road in Claxton Bay on Friday. - Marvin Hamilton[/caption]
One Chaguanas to San Fernando maxi-taxi driver, who asked to be identified only as Dan, called the protest a last resort.
He told Newsday drivers were frustrated with writing letters to the authorities, including the Ministry of Works and Transport, to no avail.
While the road’s condition has been deteriorating over the last several years, he lamented it has got worse in the past year.
“If you notice now, every green band (maxi) now, we running steel rim. I actually burst two rims and tyres on this road in November.
“We running with half- load of passengers already, we done struggling, people not working, people not travelling and money ain’t making...This road costing us. Watch how much it costing us.”
In a statement published on the United National Congress’s website on Friday, Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee called the protest a result of the “Minister of Works and Transport’s consistent refusal to adequately repair the Southern Main Road, specifically in the vicinity of Rose Hill Junction, Claxton Bay.”
Lee claims he has “been tirelessly requesting that immediate rehabilitation” and called on Works Minister Rohan Sinanan to “put the country above politics.”
He added, “It is absolutely unacceptable, disgraceful and beyond reason that Minister Sinanan, the minister
