Dharamvira Gandhi flays Amarinder Singh for deploying central force in Punjab jails

Member of Parliament from Patiala Dharamvira Gandhi on Sunday accused the Captain Amarinder Singh government of succumbing to the Centre through a series of measures aimed to undermine the sovereignty of Punjab.

“Handing over of seven high-security jails of Punjab to the Central Industrial Security Force is like handing over law and order to the Centre, a subject that is the sovereign right of the state,” the MP said in a statement.

He said during his last visit to Delhi, Amarinder met Union minister and requested him to provide central forces to the state. The MP deplored the reasons forwarded by Amarinder for such a move that the jails have become a den of gangsters and drug smugglers, which seems just an excuse. “Instead, the CM should have ordered a review of cases of drug users lodged in jails and released them to decongest prisons,” he said.

Gandhi added that he warned Amarinder of supporting the NDPS Act, which creates and perpetuates drug mafia in a prohibited market through windfall profits. “It is sad that he chose to implement the NDPS Act by instituting a special task force, an authoritarian way to deal with a social problem and humanitarian crisis.”

“Now when the failure of his measures are open and public, he, instead of reviewing his stand on the NDPS Act, has resorted to invite a central force to handle Punjab jails, an act that bounds on treason to Punjab,” he said.

He appealed state government not to prostate before the centre, reject atrocious NDPS Act, legalise intoxicants like opium, poppy husk and marijuana so as to decongest jails.

Gandhi also decried the way the Union home minister lapped up the opportunity for central intervention and despatched seven companies of the Central Industrial Security Force and paramilitary forces replacing Punjab Police from a regular duty.

He asked the CM to stop this deployment immediately, send the central forces back and take the path of democracy by initiating steps to repeal the NDPS Act, depoliticise and decriminalise Punjab Police.