RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Dozens of peo­ple were left strand­ed at taxi stands in San Fer­nan­do last night as the week­end cur­few kicked in.

But in­stead of be­ing charged, the work­ers were giv­en as­sis­tance by the po­lice to get to their des­ti­na­tions safe­ly.

Alekquay Layne, of Point Fortin, said it was the pre-cur­few po­lice road­blocks that re­sult­ed in him get­ting stuck at the Port of Spain taxi stand on High Street.

“I live in Point Fortin and I work as an MTS se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer at the Hase­ly Craw­ford sta­di­um. I left home very ear­ly but I was caught in three road­blocks. Even­tu­al­ly, when it got late, the maxi dri­ver de­cid­ed not to con­tin­ue the trip and we switched max­is with an­oth­er dri­ver who lives in San Fer­nan­do and was head­ing home. I got to the stand at 5:45 pm but I could not get a taxi,” Layne said.

He ex­plained that even though he knew he could be fined for breach­ing the cur­few he was hap­py that the po­lice were help­ful and of­fered to drop him at his work­place.

Alecquay Layne and Jay being assisted by PC Rambarran and WPC Allum at the San Fernando Police Station.

Kristian De Silva

Layne said more than a dozen peo­ple were left at the taxi stand and the po­lice were cor­dial and help­ful to all of them.

An­oth­er strand­ed pas­sen­ger who gave her name as Jay said she was al­so grate­ful to the po­lice for help­ing her to get home.

Mean­while, there were al­so strand­ed pas­sen­gers at the Fyz­abad, Mara­bel­la and Pe­nal taxi stands.

Po­lice of­fi­cers said com­muters must try to make prop­er arrange­ments to en­sure that they get some well be­fore the cur­few pe­ri­od.

Su­per­mar­ket rush

Mean­while, hours be­fore the lock­down be­gan, peo­ple flood­ed in­to gas sta­tions, su­per­mar­kets and pro­duce stalls to stock up on ra­tions for the week­end ahead.

At the NP ser­vice sta­tion in Co­coyea, mo­torists lined the Na­pari­ma / Ma­yaro Road as they wait­ed for gas.

“I want­ed to fu­el up just in case we have any emer­gen­cies this week,” Son­ny Dhan­sook said.

At Chase Vil­lage, in Freeport, meat sup­pli­ers ran a brisk trade. Parcels of fresh chick­en were lined on the coun­ter­tops, while cus­tomers came to make and pick up or­ders.

The Po­lice Ser­vice has clar­i­fied that su­per­mar­kets, mi­ni-marts and phar­ma­cies will be al­lowed to open from 5.01 am to 10.01 pm to­day and to­mor­row.

Shoppers wait in line to enter West Bees supermarket, Diego Martin, to do their groceries shopping yesterday.

Nicole Drayton

The po­lice had is­sued a state­ment ear­li­er in the day stat­ing that those es­tab­lish­ments were not al­lowed to open.

How­ev­er, late yes­ter­day evening the Po­lice Ser­vice is­sued an­oth­er state­ment clar­i­fy­ing that they would be al­lowed to open.

“The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) wish­es to clar­i­fy to mem­bers of the pub­lic that su­per­mar­kets, mi­ni-marts, phar­ma­cies, re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions (for the pur­pos­es of wed­dings and fu­ner­als), fu­ner­al homes, es­sen­tial work­ers and oth­er es­sen­tial ser­vices, as per the Reg­u­la­tions, are al­lowed to op­er­ate dur­ing the pe­ri­od 5:01 am and 10:01 am on Sat­ur­day 19th June, 2021 and 5:01 am and 10: 01 am on Sun­day 20th June, 2021. All oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties are not al­lowed.

The TTPS is com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing that per­sons stay off the road un­less it is nec­es­sary dur­ing this time, in or­der to min­imise move­ment in keep­ing with the ra­tio­nale for the State of Emer­gency, which is to re­duce the im­pact of the Covid-19 virus on the pop­u­la­tion.”

CNG gas customers line up at the NP gas station, Mon Repos, San Fernando, hoping to top up their tanks in light of the weekend curfew.

Kristian De Silva