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THE Jamaica Association of Transport Owners and Operators (JATOO) has expressed surprise and alarm at transport minister Mike Henry’s decision to report the association to National Security Minister Dwight Nelson and the police high command.

Henry yesterday referred what he described as a threat to public transport in the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region by JATOO who stated that normality could not be guaranteed if consultations on parking arrangements in downtown Kingston was discontinued.

But JATOO national co-ordinator Egeton Newman said a meeting was scheduled between JATOO and the police high command today and described Henry’s reaction as uncalled for.

“This type of response from Minister Mike Henry for whom JATOO has so much respect and with whom we have had an ongoing consultation is a hit below the belt and a slap in the face of small investors in the public transportation industry. JATOO wishes to make it very clear that we have no interest in disrupting the orderly transportation of passengers anywhere,” Newman said.

The Jamaica Urban Transit Company, (JUTC), also responded harshly to JATOO’s declaration, after one of the company’s buses was destroyed by a mysterious blaze.

Newman rubbished any allegation that any of the association’s members were responsible for the arson attack and called for an audit of the JUTC’s fleet.

“Linking JATOO with the burning of the JUTC bus in Kingston does not even deserve a response from this organisation but we would like to use this opportunity to call for a forensic audit into the operation of the JUTC, in particular the older white buses, and if they are found defective, the immediate removal of all of these buses from the streets,” he said.

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