In a letter to PM, Ravneet Singh Bittu, said Centre should seek information from institutions where Africans were studying on any suspicious activities. (File)Claiming that heroin and other synthetic drugs were entering universities and other educational institutions in Punjab through students from Africa, especially Nigerians, Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct intelligence agencies to increase the surveillance on their activities.
In a letter to PM, Bittu, who represents Ludhiana in Lok Sabha, said Centre should seek information from institutions where Africans were studying on any suspicious activities.
“Earlier, the border with Pakistan used to be the only route for supply of heroin. But, increasingly heroin and other synthetic drugs are being supplied by using African students studying in various Universities in Punjab for peddling the contraband.
Around 600-700 African students get admission to various private educational institutions in Punjab every year. Various case
studies have revealed that an equal number of women students are also being used for peddling drugs. I understand that the intelligence agencies have found that these students living in India, and especially in Punjab, have formed groups on social media.
In many cases, it has been seen that conduits start living with these students and they get them into drug trade. It is a matter of record that hundreds of African students have been arrested in Punjab in the last many years for supplying drugs,” Bittu wrote to Modi.
Targeting the AAP dispensation in Punjab, Bittu further wrote that drugs have even reached schools. “In spite of making very tall
promises to the people of Punjab of ending the drug menace within one month of coming to power in the state, the present AAP government has done very little in their six to seven months of governance, which has led to further escalation of this problem,” said Bittu.
The Congress leader further wrote that there is a need to take immediate steps to increase surveillance on all such activities & in educational institutions in Punjab.
All intelligence units need to conduct a detailed survey of activities of African students though without unnecessarily creating any hassle for these students or creating any panic among them. Information may also be sought from all the universities and private institutions where these African students are studying on any suspected activities related to drug peddling etc,& he wrote.
Bittu said that the PM should personally intervene in the matter and issue instructions and guidelines to authorities and the AAP government to address the issue.