Punjab: SAD and Congress lock horns over drugs
The Congress said that it has now become clear from the report that more than 90 per cent synthetic drugs consumed are manufactured in Punjab itself. Besides, the SAD-BJP government has failed to regulate and control chemist outlets from where youths easily procure painkiller tablets, morphine injections and cough syrups.
Punjab's politicians are now waging a war of words against each other. A quote of BSF Director General D.K. Pathak has become a bone of contention between the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Opposition Congress.
Pathak, while attending the Republic Day celebrations at the Attari-Wagah check post on Monday, had quoted a recent survey of the Community Medicine Department of Rajindra Medical College in Patiala and the Dayanand Medical College in Ludhiana which said that locally-made synthetic drugs and not heroin is to be blamed for the menace.
The study was based on information provided by drug addicts in 10 government and private de-addiction centres of the state. Pathak had quoted from the study, conducted by government medical colleges and hospitals, under the command of the Parkash Singh Badal government. As per the reports, heroin consumption in Punjab accounts for only 0.9 per cent of the total drug abuse. Pathak said locally manufactured synthetic drugs pose the actual challenge in Punjab.
Pathak also claimed that since heroin is an expensive drug meant for international markets, the poor addicts of Punjab cannot afford it.
CONGRESS spokesperson Sukhpal Singh Khaira said, "The statement of Pathak flattens, trashes and debunks the oftrepeated false claims of the Badal duo (Chief Minister Parkash and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir) that accuse the BSF of cross-border drug trafficking."
The Congress said that it has now become clear from the report that more than 90 per cent synthetic drugs consumed are manufactured in Punjab itself. Besides, the SAD-BJP government has failed to regulate and control chemist outlets from where youths easily procure painkiller tablets, morphine injections and cough syrups.
Khaira said, "The Badal duo had concocted a false notion to mislead people by saying drugs were being smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan while blaming the BSF for the crossborder trafficking. If this is the main reason for large-scale drug abuse in Punjab, then how come there is no hue and cry in Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan that also share their borders with Pakistan. The junior Badal had even held a rally at Attari recently to defame and demoralise the BSF."
Sukhbir, deputy chief minister and Akali Dal chief, has trashed the allegations of synthetic drugs being manufactured in Punjab while adding these are coming from Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
"Despite a record number of seizures of narcotics by the Punjab Police, certain people are trying to politicise the issue. Punjab was only a transit route while sources of narcotics are across the border. Instead of appreciating our effort, our rivals are politicising the issue. This is unacceptable," Sukhbir said while urging Punjabis to unitedly oppose the "vilification" campaign against his government.
SAD's alliance partner, the BJP, was also vocal over the drug menace. Prime Minister Narendra Modi even mentioned the issue in his recent radio talk. The party had also announced it would launch an anti-drug campaign in the state but later dropped the idea. Sources said the BJP does not want to annoy SAD on the issue, as the latter is contesting from four Delhi Assembly seats.
Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh recently held a 'Lalkar Rally' in Amritsar against drugs but it was rather a "lalkar" (challenge) against his rival and PCC chief Pratap Singh Bajwa who has also announced to hold a similar rally in March. Heroin continues to haunt the ruling SAD-BJP government in Punjab despite the state government's "zero tolerance" towards drug smuggling (see accompanying story). The seizures made in January 2015 are an eye-opener that the government machinery has failed to curb the menace of drugs and smuggling activities continue unabated.
In fact, direct or indirect involvement of SAD and Congress politicians in drug smuggling proves that the leaders not only use drug money to earn a fast buck but also to fund the elections. Retired DGP (Jails) Shashi Kant had initially claimed that it is due to the narco-political elite nexus that drugs have ruined the state.