Panday tells IRO: Pray for TT

OPPOSITION LEADER Basdeo Panday yesterday joined Prime Minister Patrick Manning in asking the Inter-Religious Organi-sation to hold a day of prayer in Trinidad and Tobago. The  UNC leader asked, however, that those prayers include “an end to discrimination” because it is the most serious crime in the country today. In a statement, Panday declared: “We need the intervention of God to save us from the abyss into which the nation is rapidly sinking under the present regime. Without an end to discrimination, there can be no unity in this highly plural society; and without unity there can be no mobilisation of our human resources in the battle against crime, poverty, homelessness and unemployment.”

The Prime Minister held talks with the IRO on Thursday at Whitehall about the importance of the Police Service Reform Bills to Government’s anti-crime initiatives. Former IRO president Bro Noble Khan said the IRO has made no decision about supporting the passage of the Bills in Parliament, and Manning did not ask them to persuade the UNC to support the legislation. In a statement following that meeting, the Prime Minister said: “The Government is of the view that this process started in August 1999, and for the last five years, the nation has waited for a legislative framework that will facilitate an effective Police Service. This is why we are saying to individuals and organisations — tell the Opposition that they are standing in the way of the progress of the country and they must now do what is right.”