Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Ch­agua­nas busi­ness own­ers are al­ready op­er­at­ing as if a cur­few is in ef­fect, says Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (CCIC) pres­i­dent Bal­dath Ma­haraj.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at a New Year’s Eve func­tion at the Pas­sage to Asia Restau­rant, Ch­agua­nas, on Tues­day, Ma­haraj said the CCIC had not yet re­ceived any re­ports of the num­ber of raids or suc­cess­es com­ing out of ear­ly law en­force­ment op­er­a­tions from the State of Emer­gency (SoE).

How­ev­er, he said busi­ness­men are clos­ing shop ear­li­er than they usu­al­ly do to avoid any is­sues that may arise as a re­sult of the SoE.

“The plan is to do that for the next few weeks to come,” Ma­haraj said.

He said the CCIC would like to see the el­e­ments of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty func­tion bet­ter so na­tion­als can feel a bet­ter sense of se­cu­ri­ty than they do now. “Crime is get­ting so bad that a lot of peo­ple are even get­ting numb to it. Nor­mal­ly, a mur­der 10 years ago would have been very trou­bling, now, it’s treat­ed as an­oth­er event. We are get­ting so numb to it,” he said.

Ma­haraj said the CCIC al­so wants clear guide­lines in the New Year on how busi­ness own­ers can ac­cess forex.

“It (lack of forex) makes it dif­fi­cult to op­er­ate as a busi­ness­man when you have a con­tain­er to clear,” adding many busi­ness­es have to re­sort to the black mar­ket for forex.

Mean­while, Ch­agua­nas restau­ra­teur and fete pro­mot­er Dipc­hand Per­sad said a safer T&T in 2025 would boost busi­ness. Per­sad said this is the 10th year he’ll be pro­mot­ing his Pas­sage to Asia Fete and he is hop­ing that the SoE will make pa­trons feel safer to at­tend par­ties. He is hop­ing that the de­ci­sion not to have a cur­few will re­main un­til the Car­ni­val sea­son clos­es.