Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh/Files)
After nine deaths due to drug overdose across Punjab in the past few days, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday lashed out at Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for “total failure in controlling the menace”. The drug overdose deaths have been reported from Amritsar, Bhikhiwind Tarn Taran and Kotkapura in the past one week.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh on Wednesday, senior BJP leaders Harjit Singh Grewal and Vineet Joshi said Capt. Singh, who had come to power after taking an oath to end the drug menace within a month of assuming office, has failed to tackle the issue. “Had the Capt Amarinder Singh government been serious about curbing the menace, neither drugs would have been easily available to jail inmates, nor would have the smugglers been able to run their racket sitting behind bars,” said Joshi.
”A government doctor, posted in Ludhiana jail, has clearly stated that drugs are easily accessible in the prison. The Congress government, has, however, kept mum on it,” he said.
“Drugs are being openly sold in Punjab. People are dying of drug overdose, doctors and medicines are not available at rehabilitation centres, smugglers are running drugs racket from jails and peddlers are attacking the police,” said Grewal.
Citing the case of Jasbir Singh, a former armyman of Kila Kavi Santokh Singh village in Tarn Taran, who was brutally beaten up by the drug mafia on Tuesday, resulting in a fractured leg, Joshi and Grewal said that the Chief Minister needs to “wake up” and realise the seriousness of the situation.
“There have been reports that drugs are being sold in Sensi Basti in Barnala, Chakki Dariya in Pathankot, Majri village in Ropar, Chauntra village in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Muktsar, Jalalabad, Mandi Gubaya, Hoshiarpur etc. Reports have even pointed to a nexus between the smugglers and police. Government should reveal what steps it has taken”, Grewal said.
The BJP leaders further said that if the government doesn’t want to listen to the Opposition or media, it should at least listen to its MLAs. “Congress MLA from Patti, Harminder Singh Gill, has admitted in a three-minute video that drugs have reached every household in Punjab. Another Congress MLA Surjit Singh Dhiman announced in a public function that drugs are being openly sold in Punjab owing to the nexus between political leaders and government officers,” said Joshi.
Joshi and Grewal demanded that the Station House Officer of the concerned police station should be suspended if a death is reported due to drug overdose in the area. Similarly, the Deputy Superintendents of Police and SPs should be suspended if drug-related deaths are reported in around 50 per cent area under their authority. “Only then the drug menace will be curbed,” Grewal added.