PM to maxi drivers: Govt ready to help

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has pledged that her Gov­ern­ment will as­sist maxi taxi dri­vers “in any way pos­si­ble” as she de­scribed them as de­cent, hard­work­ing cit­i­zens with le­git­i­mate griev­ances.

Weigh­ing in on the strike ac­tion by many maxi taxi op­er­a­tors across Trinidad, Per­sad-Bisses­sar was sym­pa­thet­ic to their plight.

She told Guardian Me­dia, “The vast ma­jor­i­ty of maxi op­er­a­tors are de­cent, hard­work­ing peo­ple who en­sure that our loved ones get to work or school and back home safe­ly. I have noth­ing neg­a­tive to say about them be­cause they pro­vide a ser­vice that is gen­er­al­ly ef­fi­cient and safe.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar added that a num­ber of them have pro­vid­ed trans­porta­tion ser­vices to the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) over the years and present­ly.

The dri­vers have ex­pressed what they called long-stand­ing con­cerns deal­ing with the speed lim­it, es­ca­lat­ing crime, il­le­gal “PH” taxi op­er­a­tions, NIS con­tri­bu­tions and up­grades to the maxi taxi hubs and ter­mi­nals.

Speak­ing on their is­sues, the PM said, “I do think that they have some le­git­i­mate com­plaints that can be solved eas­i­ly and some not so le­git­i­mate, which may take more work. I’m in­formed that the min­is­ter (Za­k­our) has been work­ing on these is­sues for a while.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Guardian Me­dia that she is en­cour­ag­ing the dri­vers to keep en­gag­ing with Min­is­ter Za­k­our af­ter they have “com­plet­ed their three-day strike.”

“At the end of the day, they are good law-abid­ing peo­ple, and the Gov­ern­ment will as­sist them in any way pos­si­ble to make their lives eas­i­er.”

The Prime Min­is­ter added that as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure, the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route (PBR) will re­main open to light mo­tor ve­hi­cles to­day, and the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ve­hi­cles will re­main on stand­by to trans­port com­muters.

Both yes­ter­day and Mon­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar pub­licly com­mend­ed the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) for step­ping in to as­sist strand­ed com­muters dur­ing an is­land-wide maxi-taxi protest.

She praised the of­fi­cers for their com­pas­sion, stat­ing their ef­forts em­bod­ied the true mean­ing of the TTPS mot­to, “To Pro­tect and Serve.”