Some parents displaying placards outside the Rosignol Stelling
Parents of children attending school in New Amsterdam staged a picketing exercise against the speedboat service introduced by Transport and Harbours Department on June 28 to traverse between the New Amsterdam and Rosignol ferry stellings.
The protestors were joined by Alliance For Change presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan and other senior executives of that party. The speedboat service, which is dubbed more economical for T& HD, made its first trip with commuters across the river on the morning of June 28, ending weeks of speculation over its implementation. A source attached to T&HD in Berbice explained to this publication that the ferry service was costing the department too much, with schoolchildren, who are the majority of commuters, only paying Gy$200 per month.
The ferry service needed a full crew to run the operation, while the speedboat only requires a captain and linesman. No one at T& HD was able to say what emergency rescue mechanism is in place in event the vessel, which seats 26 passengers, capsizes or experiences mechanical or other difficulties midstream. The speedboat’s engine shut down several times on Tuesday, June 28 while midstream, but the captain was able to restart the engine and complete the trip.
From about 05:45h, a crowd of approximately 150 persons gathered in front of the Rosignol Stelling displaying placards bearing statements that rejected the speedboat service. The crowd was made up of concerned parents, who are calling for a resumption of the ferry service.
Among the protestors was GuySuCo labourer Ramnarine Puran, who has one child attending school in New Amsterdam. He complained of the financial hardships likely to be faced, and that his child has to buy tickets daily. Currently, the speedboat service costs Gy$120 return per passenger. The father is also irritated over the manner in which the service was implemented.
“They never notify anyone or publish anything that they gon make a change and bring the speed boat… My child said that she frighten to cross with the boat, and she would never cross with it…” the man said.
Chetram Balkissoon, a father of two, said he is a cane harvester and money is hard to come by, especially in the out-of-crop season. He said the T& HD move is frustrating, because two of his children have to attend school in New Amsterdam. He also stated that the single speedboat is not adequate to transport the volume of school children. “Now is after 8’ o clock, (but) you can see children still on the stelling waiting to cross.
“It is very unsafe. For instance, yesterday the tide was very high and the children were very scared to cross… people also setting seine in the river; and if that propeller tangle with a seine, everybody gone… most of the children can’t swim.”
Yvonne Daniels, a sheep farmer, joined the protest over concerns for her child, who also attends school in New Amsterdam. “I don’t want the speedboat … it’s too dangerous… we want the ferry or pontoon. Bridge too expensive… Who feels it knows it… grass bin got to the pontoon propeller and it drifted all over in the river dangerously, and if grass catch that speedboat engine, everybody and everything is over… we don’t want the speedboat.”
