A representative of Bouygues Travaux Publics (left), who declined to give his name, attempts to calm angry fisherfolk at the Portmore Causeway fishing village after they were ordered to vacate lands they were relocated on, to facilitate the construction of the highway, by the Port Authority of Jamaica yesterday.
-Ian Allen photo
Leonardo Blair and John Myers, Jr., Staff Reporters
BUREAUCRATIC BUNGLING among state agencies caused an angry protest from fisherfolk at the Portmore causeway fishing village in St. Catherine yesterday, after heavily guarded Port Authority officials gave them notice to quit the left side of the roadway by next Sunday.
"The Port Authority never relocated anybody. Whosoever put them there was ill-advised to do so in the first place," said Superintendent of Police James Forbes, vice-president of security at the Port Authority.
UNFORTUNATE SITUATION
The fish vendors are crying foul, as just two weeks ago officials from the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC) and the Urban Development Company (UDC) had given them permission and paid some of them up to $30,000 to move to the left side of the roadway owned by the Port Authority. The agreement was to facilitate the construction of the new six-lane bridge connecting Kingston with St. Catherine and Clarendon as part of the Highway 2000 project.
However, in a matter of days since the total relocation to the left side, the vendors were slapped with the notices and signs erected to further inform them that they were squatting on Port Authority lands.
"It is a very unfortunate situation," said Albert Gillings, a representative of NROCC, who tried to quell the fisherfolk's fury. "We are going to have discussions with Port Authority to clarify the situation. My advice to you is to continue with what you are doing until we give a comment," he told them.
FUTURE UNSURE
Some of the fisherfolk, who were halfway into erecting new structures with freshly bought lumber, ripped up the notices and drew the attention of Portmore motorists as they shouted in anger that they were tricked.
"This will have to be settled by the ballot, the book or the bullet," said one fisherman.
"Them tell we that Port Authority wouldn't be ready for over here till the next five years and all of a sudden we see police drive up today?" said Angela Ashmeade, who has been selling fish along the roadside for more than 20 years.
"Is a big industry out here so. Ah millions of dollars we have in fishing equipment. This ah we livelihood, weh wi a guh go. This can't be right," said Demas, another fisherman who was on the scene.
And neither did Richard Kelly, senior fisheries officer in the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture who assisted in brokering the relocation agreement. "The consensus was that you guys (fisherfolk) would come over here because of the dwelling problems temporarily. All I know is that it's a big misunderstanding because we were of the belief that everything was quite all right," he said.
