Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the State was fighting a war on drug menace and his government has taken a number of bold decisions to stamp out this curse.
“We have opened several drug de-addiction centres to provide the best suitable treatment to the drug addicts for their detoxification,” he said.
A network of rehabilitation centres have also been set up in the State for the rehabilitation of drug addicts to enable them to lead a happy life with self-respect, the chief minister said
He lamented that the narcotics like heroine was smuggled into Punjab from Afghanistan via Pakistan.
“On the Law and Order front, our government had taken a tough posture against the drug traffickers who were indulging in the illegal smuggling of drugs across the state by taking stern actions against these offenders,” Mr. Badal said.
Justifying the issue of transferring Sikh prisoners from other States to Punjab, the Chief Minister categorically said that our government has not committed anything wrong as we have not released rather only shifted them to State jails that too within the ambit of law of the land.
On the contrary the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, an outfit of RSS has even approached the Union Home Ministry to release all the Sikh prisoners lodged in different jails of the country on humanitarian grounds, he said.
Mr. Badal ridiculed Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Amarinder Singh for “playing to the gallery rather seriously focusing” on his “much hyped mass contact programme” to reclaim his party’s base and credibility.
“Congress base has been shoddily eroded due to people’s unflinching faith and confidence in the policies and programmes of the SAD-BJP alliance in the State,” he said.
On the sidelines on the first day of his Sangat Darshan programme in the Jandiala Guru Assembly Segment, the Chief Minister said that the real ‘Mass Contact’ programme to establish cordial relations with the general public was his time-tested Sangat Darshan programme which was primarily aimed at resolving the issues of common man on the spot besides instilling a sense of confidence in the functioning of the State administration. - PTI
