Rating and other activities shut down
A large detachment of heavily armed police and soldiers has shut down the White River Rafting and businesses that surround it at White River near Ocho Rios, St Ann.
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Meantime, rafts men, cooks, shop operators and other people who earn from the increasingly popular rafting activities are vowing to keep the activities going. They say the plan is to shut them out.
Police went to the scene early Thursday morning, March 30, and blocked entry to the area where rafting talks place, near the mouth of the river.
Several fishermen not connected to the rafting as well as workers and patrons of small cook shops that are in the area were prevented from accessing the narrow road that leads to the area.
The action is reportedly aimed at bringing order to the area where dozens of rafts have been operating, most of them without licences, in the last few months.
The Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCO) says it wants to regularise operations and get standards to the rafting and associated businesses. There has been no significant progress in meetings with some of the raftsmen.
Police have warned since last December that they would bring an end to illegal practices there.
