RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris as­sures that prepa­ra­tions are in full swing for a se­cure 2024 Car­ni­val in the south city with var­i­ous arms of law en­force­ment en­gag­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tive pa­trols. 

Speak­ing in an in­ter­view yes­ter­day with Guardian Me­dia, Par­ris said spe­cial­ly craft­ed stalls have been set up for High Street ven­dors in des­ig­nat­ed vend­ing zones, which now cre­ates more space on the main shop­ping streets.

He al­so said joint army/po­lice pa­trols have al­ready start­ed and are set to in­ten­si­fy as Car­ni­val draws near. 

“We have al­ready es­tab­lished our routes and we have been meet­ing with law en­force­ment of­fi­cials to dis­cuss se­cu­ri­ty in the city,” Par­ris said. He en­cour­aged re­spon­si­ble be­hav­iour among cit­i­zens, say­ing the in­crease in pa­trols would act as a de­ter­rent for crim­i­nals.

“Since the end of No­vem­ber when we had city month, we have been hav­ing dis­cus­sions con­cern­ing se­cu­ri­ty in the shop­ping dis­tricts, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Prom­e­nade,” he said.

He re­vealed that the Car­ni­val routes have been ap­proved by the Com­mis­sion­er’s of­fice. 

“They are de­ploy­ing ex­tra per­son­nel and they were there for Christ­mas and in­to Car­ni­val. I fore­see that by the grace of God, peo­ple will do the right thing and we will have a safe Car­ni­val by the grace of God and cit­i­zens will en­joy them­selves re­spon­si­bly,” he added.

Mean­while, the pres­i­dent of the Greater San Fer­nan­do Cham­ber of Com­merce Ki­ran Singh laud­ed the se­cu­ri­ty arrange­ments. He said fol­low­ing meet­ings with ACP South/Cen­tral Ali­cia Hen­ry, he was sat­is­fied that se­cu­ri­ty would be boost­ed in the city dur­ing Car­ni­val.

Singh said he was hop­ing for con­tin­ued po­lice and army col­lab­o­ra­tion in the post-Car­ni­val pe­ri­od.

“We have some more pro­mo­tion­al days com­ing up. We have Valen­tine’s Day and we are ap­peal­ing for the joint po­lice and army pa­trols to con­tin­ue,” he added. 

Mean­while, ACP Hen­ry al­so said there will be full se­cu­ri­ty cov­er­age in the south­ern city for Car­ni­val.

“We will be pre­sent­ing the plans for the Com­mis­sion­er and then we will give the me­dia an overview of the arrange­ments,” she said.

She added, “Ex­cel­lent se­cu­ri­ty arrange­ments will be put in place. There will be blan­ket cov­er­age. We have been meet­ing with the stake­hold­ers to en­sure that every­body un­der­stands their role and their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties. We want the Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do to be the safest ever.”