Sunday, November 1 2009

Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday believes the murder toll would reach 500 by year’s end.

“It is getting worse and worse all the time. I think we are going to reach 500 by the end of the year,” he said yesterday in an interview.

Panday made the prediction yesterday, ahead of his planned meeting with Prime Minister Patrick Manning on Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to be held at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday said matters of national interest – crime and constitution reform – would be the main items on the agenda.

Panday said Manning had asked for the meeting during last Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives.

“It is my duty to respond and he asked me what I would like to talk about and I said crime and constitutional reform,” he said. “There is nothing more pressing in the country right now than crime and constitutional reform.”

Panday maintained that the Government was not in control of the crime situation.

“Runaway crime has not stopped or slowed down,” he said.

The Opposition Leader insisted that a Government’s main priority should be the safety of its citizens.

He added, though, that the solution to the problem would require a comprehensive plan of action for the police and court and prisons system.