PNM addresses small Moruga crowd

NATIONAL Security Minister Howard Chin Lee has challenged the nation’s young people to “get high on education” instead of becoming sucked into a life of crime. He made the call while addressing a small crowd at a political meeting at Samuel Street, Basseterre, Moruga on Monday night. While expressing “alarm” at the increase in kidnappings and gang-related murders, Chin Lee said that the PNM’s Vision 2020 development plan rested on the nation’s youth “developing their minds by 2020.” “You can waste away your minds by getting high on crime or you can get high on reading, by training and learning a skill by 2020,” Chin Lee said, “Get high on information and information technology.” The National Security Minister also revealed that at the graduation exercise for the Anti-Kidnapping Squad, one of the FBI trainers had said the squad was comparable to the world’s finest having excelled in the areas of crime detection, evidence building and past case studies. He also dismissed the Opposition UNC’s claim that the police service was being hindered by a lack of mobility, saying 20 brand-new Land Rover vehicles would soon be added to the police service fleet. Also addressing the meeting was Works and Transport Minister, Franklyn Khan, who predicted that the ruling party would wrest the Siparia and Sangre Grande Regional Corporations away from the Opposition UNC.