Senior Reporter
jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt
Maxi taxi drivers who work the San Fernando to Chaguanas route are calling for better security after two drivers were robbed on the Chaguanas stand last Saturday.
Speaking with Guardian Media yesterday, Vikash Kissoondath, president of the Route III Maxi-Taxi Association, said he and his members face bandits on the road and now have to endure robberies at the hub.
“We have been faced with a series of robberies, I will say, in the past six months. The latest one was last week Saturday. As soon as a passenger exited the vehicle, he robbed two maxi drivers.”
Rakesh Ramkissoon, a maxi-taxi driver for 20 years, was one of those robbed. His float and weekly payment were stolen at gunpoint on the maxi taxi stand.
“So, the guy comes down with a maxi, robbed the driver of the maxi and then jumped out with the gun and push it in my waist and he tell me ‘give me the so and so money’.”
The 49-year-old driver said what shocked him the most was that the incident occurred around 9.30 am. He said the bandit took the $3,000 he set aside to pay the owner of the maxi and all the money he made that morning.
Ramkissoon said what made the situation even more upsetting was the reaction from some of his own colleagues.
“When other maxi drivers hear about it, they say oh I should ah take corn for the money. To tell yuh the honest truth, I not taking no shoot for nobody’s money. Is fellas who working here telling yuh that, yuh understand? Now you have to watch them different, now you have to know who’s your friend and who’s not your friend outside there. You never know what could have happened to me, I could ah get shoot and dead.”
Kissoondath said there is a need for security cameras and increased police presence to prevent further attacks. He said appeals to the relevant authorities have fallen on deaf ears.
“We have been speaking to the last regime. We had no assistance whatsoever because the last Permanent Secretary and the last minister was like a cat and mouse game. Good cop, bad cop. We’re getting something and then we’re not getting it,” he claimed.
Aside from security issues, Kissoondath said the area is prone to flooding and that too is not being addressed. He called on both the Minister of Works, Jearlean John and the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Eli Zakour, to address their concerns.
“We also have the issue where we have the PH cars on Eleanor Street. That’s the street before the maxi stand that starves the maxi stand. Sometimes we take hours to get one maxi filled. It’s unfair. The legal form of transportation starves while the PH flourishes.”
In response, John, who is the Member of Parliament for Couva North, where the maxi stand falls, promised to address the “troubling incidents” of robberies.
“I have already begun engaging with the relevant agencies, including the Ministry of National Security and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, to explore immediate measures to increase security along the route. With regard to the issue of the illegal PH stand, I will be liaising with the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation and other local authorities to ensure these matters are being addressed decisively,” the minister said.
John also assured the flooding problem would be rectified.
