Dear Editor,
Have you ever been held against your will because you refused to comply with someone’s malicious behaviour? Well that was the situation I had to endure at the T&HD Parika Stelling on 19th October, 2016 around 4:00 pm. I am a hire car driver and I went up to the stelling to drop off a passenger to catch the Supenaam speed boat.
As I offloaded her baggage, I pulled into the corner for a canter to pass out. I then waited for two minutes for another passenger, not obstructing traffic. A man then came up to me and said that I can’t be there, to which I replied that I was paying a gate pass to be up here. Nevertheless the man told me, “you gon pay more than that, don’t worry” as he walked away. A tractor attached to a trailer was disembarking a ferry at the time and the guy who directs the traffic on that ferry simply asked me to pull forward a bit and I complied. As I collected my passenger who is a tourist and was exiting the stelling, my car was prevented from passing the gate and I was told that I have to pay $5,000 because I was blocking traffic. It was there that me, my vehicle and passenger were held against our will for a lengthy period.
After making queries as to who gave the instruction I was told it was the same gentleman who told me “you gon pay more than that, don’t worry”. To my surprise this man has an influential post at the stelling. This is utmost disrespect to the T&HD, since this man was dressed in a jersey and pants and had no identification whatsoever with the T&HD logo or no badge to identify himself.
At that very point the royal runaround started as I went to the ticket booth to obtain information as to what the man’s name was so I could go and look for him to query the situation. At the ticket booth I was greeted by the booking clerk who seemed totally unconcerned. He just sat there reading a newspaper showing no interest and told me to go look for the same man who threatened me. I searched and found the man who still insisted that I had to pay the money or else I couldn’t pass out. He didn’t even explain or relate to me how he came to the conclusion that my car was blocking traffic even though there were other vehicles that were double parked on the stelling. He walked away unconcerned.
I went over to the Parika Police Station and related my story and with full co-operation they assisted by sending over an officer with me and still the T&HD staff refused to open the gate. I had to end up letting my passenger catch another car and I parked my car in a corner and left it for a few hours until I could return with the $5,000.
I lost a day’s earning due to the incident and was saddened by the way my passenger, a tourist was held against her will like a prisoner and my car just because of the reaction of this T&HD man which was totally unprofessional.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
