RHON­DOR DOWLAT

The an­nounce­ment that se­nior cit­i­zens will no longer trav­el for free on the in­ter-is­land fer­ry be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go has come as a shock among se­nior cit­i­zens, who are al­so see­ing it as a form of dis­re­spect by the Gov­ern­ment.

On Mon­day dur­ing the Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert an­nounced that se­nior cit­i­zens will now have to pay $25 one-way ($50 re­turn) to use the ser­vice from Jan­u­ary 1, 2023.

How­ev­er, T&T As­so­ci­a­tion of Re­tired Per­sons (TTARP) sec­re­tary Mayling Younglao yes­ter­day de­scribed the de­ci­sion as “harsh.”

Younglao said as a se­nior cit­i­zen her­self, the fee for the ser­vice, which was pre­vi­ous­ly free to any trav­el­ling se­nior cit­i­zen, was in­con­sid­er­ate giv­en the fact that the coun­try is now com­ing out of a COVID-19 lock­down.

“This was our on­ly av­enue to make a day trip at no cost. It cost us yes be­cause we have to be there ear­ly, we have to get trans­port and get meals and so but, it was a plus,” Younglao said.

“If we are all think­ing of the men­tal…de­men­tia, it is one way for a se­nior cit­i­zen to help them­selves come to­geth­er, take a lit­tle trip, see a nice lit­tle sea, feel the breeze in their face and it helps and you come back home and you’re re­ju­ve­nat­ed. But now, we have to look at it, if we have to put $25 and it will make so much of a dif­fer­ence, it might not make a big dif­fer­ence to say the av­er­age per­son but for se­nior cit­i­zens who’s on a fixed in­come and every­thing else go­ing up be­cause pen­sions not go­ing up, salaries not go­ing up…it’s kind of tough on us. It is re­al­ly, re­al­ly tough on us,” Younglao added.

She ad­mit­ted, how­ev­er, that the TTARP ex­ec­u­tive was yet to meet on the fee is­sue, along with oth­er na­tion­al is­sues that may have come up dur­ing the Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion.

A se­nior cit­i­zen, who would on­ly give her name as Sher­ry S, 69, of Cara­pichaima, yes­ter­day ques­tioned, “How could the Gov­ern­ment do this to us, the se­nior cit­i­zens?

“We are al­ready un­der stress to pay for food, med­i­cine (most times we do not get at the health fa­cil­i­ties) and util­i­ty bills. The hap­py feel­ings we get when we use the fer­ry free of charge to us to go to To­ba­go and de-stress is now tak­en away from us,” Sher­ry S said.

“I feel heart­bro­ken and dis­ap­point­ed to know that I can no longer af­ford the trip to To­ba­go. I am very sad. Could the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance and his ad­vi­sors please can­cel that fee for us and bring back some joy and peace to us, their se­nior cit­i­zens,” she added.

An­oth­er se­nior, 60, from Ch­agua­nas, who wished not to be named, de­scribed it as an “in­jus­tice.”

“I think it is a great in­jus­tice to im­ple­ment a fee for se­nior cit­i­zens. Se­niors once worked very ar­du­ous and con­tributed tremen­dous­ly to na­tion-build­ing. It’s on­ly eq­ui­table that in their twi­light stage of life they are giv­en back some­thing in re­turn.”