SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Pres­i­dent of the Bar­keep­ers and Op­er­a­tors As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (BOATT) Satesh Moonasar is call­ing on the act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er to prop­er­ly ad­vise his of­fi­cers on the reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing the safe zones.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day Moonasar said he had got­ten com­plaints from mem­bers in Pe­nal that seemed to be con­trary to the Pub­lic Health Reg­u­la­tions in place for safe zones.

“We have been get­ting calls from bar own­ers where the TTPS spe­cial team has been go­ing around and ba­si­cal­ly telling the bar own­ers that they are not al­lowed to have any­body or any dine-in once they have a re­tail­ers li­cense, no one is al­lowed a soft drink or any­thing on the com­pound, which is in con­tra­ven­tion of the ac­tu­al health or­di­nance,” Moonasar said.

He said un­der the safe zone ini­tia­tive, cin­e­mas, gyms and bet­ting hous­es were al­lowed to have 50 per cent ca­pac­i­ty and al­lowed to run their ap­proved gam­ing ma­chines.

“The on­ly pro­hi­bi­tion we have now is no con­sump­tion of al­co­hol on the com­pound and on­ly vac­ci­nat­ed per­sons are al­lowed in­to the safe zone. Clear­ly what is hap­pen­ing in the Pe­nal dis­trict is not right.”

Moonasar said he had al­so re­ceived com­plaints from the Barataria area about amuse­ment gam­ing ma­chines but he did not elab­o­rate, say­ing he want­ed to fo­cus on the is­sue fac­ing his mem­bers in Pe­nal.

He said is­sues with po­lice in that area were not new.

“This is a dis­trict where since the as­so­ci­a­tion start­ed, we have been get­ting mul­ti­ple com­plaints from that dis­trict when it comes to the TTPS and bar own­ers are afraid to come for­ward for fear of be­ing vic­timised by the of­fi­cers.”

Moonasar said the po­lice of­fi­cers in that dis­trict were en­forc­ing in­cor­rect reg­u­la­tions and he wants the TTPS to cor­rect this.

He is sug­gest­ing more train­ing for of­fi­cers.

“We need to have the in­spec­tors who are com­ing out from the TTPS to be prop­er­ly ed­u­cat­ed on what are the reg­u­la­tions be­cause clear­ly the in­for­ma­tion that they are giv­ing is wrong and that has noth­ing to do with the reg­u­la­tions, it is clear in the reg­u­la­tion that we are al­lowed 50 per cent ca­pac­i­ty and it is even in the TT safe zone sign that we have to put up.”

He said en­force­ment of the law should be ac­cu­rate and eq­ui­table. Moonasar said he was told that po­lice are go­ing in­to bars on­ly and not oth­er es­tab­lish­ments now al­lowed to open un­der the safe zone.

“We need eq­ui­table en­force­ment and we need of­fi­cers who are go­ing out to safe zones to be clear on what is al­lowed and what is not al­lowed and it can­not be dif­fer­ent from dis­trict to dis­trict,” he said.

Guardian Me­dia tried con­tact­ing act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Mc­Don­ald Ja­cob but there was no re­sponse to calls and mes­sages sent to his cell­phone.