THE EDITOR: Several business owners have contacted me concerned over recent police action against bad parking on Aranguez Main Road over the last two weeks, which can only be described as using a cannon to kill a fly. The cannon being the police and the fly being the errant motorist.

Aranguez has become a booming commercial success. Small clothing and vegetable stalls and fast food businesses are now flourishing on the main thoroughfare. With great bargains to be had this has attracted a steady stream of customers. But as with all things good we get a bit of the bad. Bad in the form of traffic and congestion.

While the main road is fairly wide and can accommodate parking on one side, the problem is that customers often park on both sides of the road, resulting in bottlenecks. This usually happens at three choke points at peak hours.

With true TTPS spirit the police have been ticketing errant drivers left, right and centre. The result of this will be to drive customers out of Aranguez, thus reducing trade and destroying small and medium businesses, all of whom employ youth, single mothers and other people in the district.

While the police presence is highly appreciated, it must be noted that the sole intention of the police is to prevent all parking on the main road. Foot patrols never even venture into side streets, not even to remove drivers who double park there as well

Driving through Aranguez, vendors can be seen staring hopefully as cars past their stalls. With perishable goods it is only a matter of time before they pack up and call it a day.

I remember leading a delegation of businessmen and taxi drivers to police headquarters in 2018. There we proposed parking on alternate sides of the street every other day as a logical solution to the same problem.

As with so many things in TT, simple solutions are discarded in favour of brutal ones.

Daily, busloads of police can be seen in Aranguez not only clearing traffic, but also chasing away potential customers.

While the taxi drivers can now ply their trade easily, the downside is as businesses close down they will also lose customers. What is sweet today may soon turn sour.

May I once again suggest that the police allow parking on alternate sides of the street on different days. This way we keep the businesses happy, people employed and traffic flowing.

If this arrangement can work in Port of Spain, why can't it work in Aranguez? Unless there are other forces at work that have an intrest in shutting down vegetable, clothing and other small business owners.

PUNDIT SATYANAND MAHARAJ

spiritual leader

Satya Anand Ashram Aranguez