Reporter
carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt
Vendors who operate the booths around the Queen’s Park Savannah for Carnival are asking President Christine Kangaloo to come to their assistance. They said they are hoping the President will give them permission to sell alcoholic beverages for tomorrow’s National Panorama semi-finals.
Their current licences give them this permission only from February 8.
According to Carnival Entrepreneurs Association head David Baptiste, vendors staged a peaceful protest outside the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and yesterday highlighting the issue. He said they were hoping for answers regarding a request to have the date of the licence changed.
This is why they are now hoping the President herself will intervene.
“Seeing the plight we going through concerning getting a licence for Sunday’s event, we asking the President of Trinidad and Tobago if we can get a waiver on this licence so we can ply our trade...and then we will go through the process of the court going forward,” he said.
Baptiste, whose association has 80 members, told Guardian Media they usually get the special liquor licence for 17 days but this time they only received it for a week.
“Seventeen days is from Sunday, so normally all now is when they does process everything but it just not happening this year,” he said.
He said his members had already paid for their booths and stocked up on supplies, but being unable to sell alcohol from tomorrow will affect their profits.
Vice President of the association Mary Diaz agreed. She said this Carnival season is already short and the Panorama semi-finals is an event many of them look out for to make financial gain.
“Between the 28th and the 8th there are numerous events...but everybody know that pan people does drink, that is one of the few days that we make a dollar, that is one of the days that is our first income earner. Some of us depend on it to get we first dollar to continue for the Carnival season,” she explained.
Diaz said they can sell soft drinks, water or food any other time but not for Panorama.
The vendors, who said they paid approximately $3,000 for a booth, invited the police to visit them tomorrow, if they get a waiver from the President, to ensure they are operating legally.