4th deadline in 3 years to make Punjab drug-free

Jalandhar: As a major anti-drugs campaign was launched by the Bhagwant Mann govt, calling it a "war against drugs", it marked the fourth deadline given by AAP to eradicate narcotics in Punjab. One deadline was set ahead of the 2022 assembly election, and three were fixed later. The first deadline was six months, and the latest is three months.
The anti-drug campaign, with high visibility of police and the state govt providing the number of cases being registered daily, is not new. The only novelty appears to be the demolition of properties of drug peddlers using bulldozers, which also seems to replicate a model started by the Yogi Adityanath govt in Uttar Pradesh and used by the BJP in a few other states.
Ahead of the 2022 assembly polls, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal promised to eradicate drugs in six months, and in at least one TV interview, he stipulated a three-to-four-month limit for the purpose. The AAP govt claimed to be consistently working against drugs, but there were quite a few cases of drug deaths and a few videos also making their way to Punjabi social media spaces. This generated a lot of heat during the Congress regime and provided a handle to AAP at that time.
Against this backdrop, CM Bhagwant Mann, addressing the Independence Day function on Aug 15, 2023, at Patiala, asserted that a blueprint was ready for making Punjab a drug-free state by the next Independence Day. "We are ready with a big plan, and you will start seeing the results. I assure you that before next Aug 15, we will be successful in washing away the stigma of ‘chitta'," he said.
The problem persisted without showing signs of subsiding, and the AAP govt's failure to deliver on its promise became an issue in the 2024 parliament election. Facing questions, Punjab minister and AAP's candidate for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, around the second week of April 2024, told people that the CM said Punjab would be drug-free by Dec 31, 2024. He mentioned holding three meetings with Union home minister Amit Shah to use foreign technology to stop the use of drones at the border.
The party's vote share dropped from 42% in the assembly polls to 26% in the Lok Sabha polls. Now, with AAP worried about saving its last stronghold, Punjab, after losing the Delhi assembly election, a fresh ‘war against drugs' has been launched with a deadline of three months.
1st major crackdown in 2014
The first major anti-drugs campaign was launched by the Parkash Singh Badal govt after the 2014 LS election, in which drugs became a big issue and worked for AAP at that time. Hundreds of FIRs were registered, and drug peddlers were arrested within a few weeks. Ahead of the 2017 assembly polls, drugs were a major issue, and AAP, in its manifesto, fixed a deadline of one month to eradicate drugs in the state. Then Punjab Congress president Captain Amrinder Singh vowed to eradicate drugs in one month after coming to power. Though there appeared to be a crackdown after Amarinder took charge, the problem persisted, and Congress faced criticism for it in the 2022 assembly polls. Along with other issues, this also worked favourably for AAP, which gave itself six months to accomplish the task.
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