National Security Minister Carl Alfonso has called on the senior management of the police service to provide a report on who ordered nation-wide police road blocks that virtually crippled Trinidad and Tobago on Monday.
The police have denied that their action was linked to the ongoing industrial dispute with the government over increased salaries, insisting that their action was aimed at maintain law and order in the twin-island republic.
“If I hear there is a road block in some part of Trinidad and Tobago, it doesn’t worry me too much. If you have extensive road blocks all over the country that is cause for concern,’ said Alfonso, adding “it looked like a massive operation and that would concern most people including myself”.
He said he had sought answers from the top management of the police because late Sunday night he had held talks with Acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams at a function and there was no mention of planned road blocks.
“This talk of a road block taking place today was not discussed at all, so I assume he did not know that all these road blocks were going to take place,” said Alfonso, adding that he had ordered the Deputy Police Commissioner Ann Marie Alleyne to investigate the situation.
“I have asked for a report on who authorize all these road blocks all over the place,” he said, adding that he would also be meeting with the senior police officer “to get a full report as to what has happened, who authorized a nationwide road block that has disrupted the traffic to the extent that it has”.
Police spokeswoman Ellen Lewis, speaking on radio here, said that the road blocks had been planned well before Monday and were not part of any industrial action being planned by police officers to protest the slow pace of negotiations for salary increases.
She said that while some of the road blocks were due to end early on Monday morning, motorists were calling radio and television stations complaining that they had been stuck in traffic for more than two hours.
“Those exercises were planned and scheduled…but all our exercises are intended to ensure we maintain law and order and therefore the public ought to be a bit understanding and considerate in this regard,” Lewis said.
But motorists and others have called the media to say that the road blocks appear to be fake as police officers ask a number of questions not related to the traffic situation.
The action of the police also forced a number of workers to either report late for duty or stay away, disrupting also courts, schools and the state-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) said that the departures of several of its domestic and international flights were experiencing delays due to a nationwide traffic gridlock in Trinidad and Tobago.
“The airline will waive date change penalties for any passengers who may be affected,” it said, urging passengers to check with agents or its website for further updates.
Last week, the Secretary of the Police and Social Welfare Association Michael Seales said that members have been complaining that since 2011 there has been no progress in the negotiations with the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO).
Seales said the basic salary of a junior police officer was TT$5,123 (One TT dollar =US$0.16 cents) and just about TT$1,000 more in benefits.
The minority opposition Independent Liberal Party (ILP) condemned the “action being taken by police officers to shut down the country for the second consecutive work day by using a series of road blocks”.
IPL leader Austin “Jack” Warner said the innocent public should not be made to pay the price for the dispute between the police and the government.
Warner also called on the government to sit down with the police “and work out their differences swiftly and to spare the population of the frustration of having this situation being continued for an inordinate length of time. Let good sense prevail; the public must not be held to ransom any more”.
Source-CMC
