The first day in the school term brought chaos and traffic in Iere Village yesterday, as villagers and taxi drivers blocked the road with burning debris to protest the bad road conditions.
The police tried clearing the debris but defiant villagers kept dragging the debris back into the road during the course of the day.
School children were among scores of commuters who got caught up in traffic along the Naparima Mayaro Main Road, which runs from San Fernando to Mayaro.
The protest started off as a silent one by Main Road/Palmyra taxi drivers who parked their cars on the side of the road, but they were joined by villagers around 8 am and a decision was taken to block the road.
President of the Main Road/Palmyra Taxi Drivers' Association, Joseph Badree, said this was the end result of empty
promises to fix the road.
Badree said, "We have been complaining on numerous occasions. We complained to the last administration and this administration. We met the MP and councillor and we tried to have a meeting with the Minister of Works, but he is playing a cat and mouse game with us. About two weeks ago we were supposed to have a meeting with him, organised through the MP Rodney Charles. It was supposed to be on the Wednesday, it was adjourned to the Saturday and he still did not turn up."
He added, "The road is very bad. It is costing us a lot of money to repair our vehicles. We started off as a peaceful protest but then the villagers came out. They are suffering just as much as we are, they have vehicles too. When they realise the media houses not coming they decided to block the road. It cause a lot of hiccups with vehicles turning around."
Joseph has given the ministry a week deadline to fix the road or face more intense protect action.
Attempts to reach Charles and Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan were unsuccessful yesterday as they did not answer their cell phones.