Ameen upset at dengue, crime in St Augustine

ST Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen has expressed her deep concern at a spate of violent crime in her constituency plus her perceived shortcomings in the authorities' response to the dengue outbreak.

She lamented crime in a statement titled Extortion, robberies on the increase in St Augustine, and slammed the Government's response to dengue in an interview in an online series called One-on-One, with Safraz Ali and Leisha Dhoray. The statement and interview were publicised on August 6.

In her statement, Ameen said areas in her constituency have become hotbeds for crime, with bandits using easy escape routes via the highway.

"Residents and business owners in Pasea, Orange Grove Road, and St Augustine South are facing an alarming increase in criminal activities including extortion, robberies, shootings and home invasions."

As MP, Ameen said, she has visited several families who were severely affected, as the community faced a wave of business closures, with some owners resorting to migration due to threats to their safety.

"Despite the efforts to increase police patrols in the affected areas, the current measures have proven insufficient.

"Business owners are being forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money by criminals who visit their premises or contact them via phone and if they don’t comply they homes are shot up and their families threatened to be kidnapped or killed."

She said many of these are family-run businesses, which employ local people who were now on the breadline.

Ameen said some business owners had applied for firearm user's licences but had been awaiting approval for years, and were pleading for the ability to lawfully protect their families.

She said the situation was worsened by jurisdictional confusion between the Tunapuna and St Joseph Police Stations.

"When victims seek help, they are often redirected between stations, resulting in critical delays that allow the criminals to escape."

Ameen said residents were contemplating hiring private security firms for patrols, but this was a financial burden.

She was committed to working with the authorities to develop a strategy to combat the rising crime and ensure the safety of all residents, she said. She hoped for better police resources and responsiveness in the affected areas, plus swift action to clarify the jurisdictional issues of the two police stations.

In the interview, Ameen alleged the Ministry of Health's Insect Vector Control Division was "severely under-resourced" in terms of staff, vehicles and equipment such as fogging machines. She said while Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh had warned against over-spraying, people's concern now was about under-spraying.

Lamenting that a ten-year old girl had died from dengue in Arima, Ameen said, "People are scared for their lives."

She complained that the Government had fired litter wardens employed by regional corporations, who she said would have worked to reduce the number of places where mosquitoes could breed and take offenders to court.

Even when citizens clean up their premises, corporations lack the capacity to collect the debris, Ameen claimed.

"I have constituents sick in bed, worried they might die."

Querying Deyalsingh's threat of a $3,500 fine for people inadvertently breeding mosquitoes, she said she would like to take him to visit government premises where mosquitoes were breeding.

"We will start with the Ministry of Health.

"Even in schools and hospitals we can find premises breeding mosquitoes."

More broadly, she lamented lengthy hospital waiting lists and alleged people slept on the floor in hospital emergency rooms.

Ameen said in past times, the Insect Vector Control Unit used to visit households and post up a card for signature on repeated visits, with inspectors sprinkling granules in flower containers to deter mosquitoes.

"We don't have those visits again. In St Augustine it is not happening."

On crime, she said a major issue the police faced was a lack of public confidence. She alleged cases where someone made a report at a police station against criminals and on reaching home, found the criminal already knew of the complaint.

Ameen suggested a police post should be set up south of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway.

"In St Augustine South, we have a lot of people living in fear."