The increase in criminal ac­tivities at Kashmir Housing Estate in Lautoka, is a worry for residents and business owners.

Kashmir Topcare and Bread Shop owner Prakash Chand revealed this while addressing the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Cooperatives, SMEs and Commu­nications Manoa Kamikamica dur­ing a public consultation at Vitogo, Lautoka on Wednesday.

Mr Chand said the late response by Police had caused frustration for community members.

“Near my shop two robberies hap­pened,” he said.

“We called Police, they never came, even I asked them to give the number to the Commissioner, but they never gave it,” he said.

Mr Kamikamica thanked Mr Chand for voicing his concerns.

“The current minister has gone off on a break to Australia, but I’ll talk to the minister and then try and see what we can do. There’s certainly no reason why we experi­encing delays in in Police not com­ing out. Thank you for that feed­back,” he said.

Divisional Police Commander West Senior Superintendent of Po­lice (SSP) Iakobo Vaisewa said he could not comment fully as he was unaware of the reports.

“I am not aware of this issue as it was not directly raised to me but its good to be audited by the public so that we can see our weaknesses and I welcome members of the pub­lic to come forward with their con­cerns, the only thing is for them to raise this issue directly to me,” he said.

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