‘Alarming’: Opposition jabs Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann over 14 drug abuse deaths

Chandigarh, June 16

A day after The Tribune carried a report mentioning 14 drug-related deaths in as many days, a political slugfest ensued in Punjab, with opposition parties attacking the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over its “failure” to root out the menace.

Several leaders of opposition parties, who shared on their social media handles a clipping of The Tribune report, “Punjab drug overdose: 14 deaths in 14 days”, demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, alleging the drug menace had assumed alarming proportions under his regime.

The AAP government, for its part, refuted the allegations and the Opposition’s criticism, asserting the backbone of the drug smuggling mafia had been broken.

Punjab Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA Partap Singh Bajwa said, “Every day, another life is being lost due to the gross incompetence of the Bhagwant Mann government. It has no moral right to govern Punjab. ‘False promises and zero delivery’ is the best definition for the ruling party.”

Congress state chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said the AAP government was best at only extending its promised deadline to eradicate drugs from Punjab. “When will the government make a proper roadmap to save the Punjabi youth?” he asked. BJP state president Sunil Jakhar urged the Chief Minister to wake up from “deep sleep and act tough to save Punjab’s youth from the menace proliferating right under the nose of his government”. “These tragic deaths expose the ‘Rangla Punjab’ claimed by Bhagwant Mann. Punjab is in deep grip of the drug mafia and this is happening under the full control and guidance of the AAP regime, which today lies exposed before all Punjabis,” said Jakhar. Hitting back at Jakhar, AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang claimed that illegal drugs were reaching Punjab from Maharashtra and Gujarat, the states ruled by the BJP. “It’s the failure of the BJP governments as well as patronising of the drug lords by the saffron party that illegal drugs in such huge quantity are reaching India,” he said.

Kang alleged that the BJP was always doing one thing or the other to defame Punjab. “It’s saddening to see that Jakhar, who claims himself to be Punjab’s son, is always giving statements against Punjab and never raising his voice for Punjab, its people and farmers. It seems Jakhar has forgotten that it was during the BJP-SAD government that the drug menace took roots in the state,” he said. The AAP leader claimed that Bhagwant Mann had been working earnestly since day one to eradicate the drug mafia from Punjab.

SAD leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal asserted that AAP and Congress had been in power in Punjab for the past seven years and they were still blaming the Akalis for the drug problem. “The problem has reached enormous proportions under Mann government’s rule,” she alleged. Amid the bickering, the Punjab Police claimed that four of these deaths were not directly linked to drugs. They said the two alleged drug deaths in Abohar and Amritsar could be because of heatwave, alcoholism or some other reason.

Cops to crack down on peddlers along border

The Punjab Police will soon launch ‘Mission Nishchay’, a plan to rein in peddlers in 40 villages along the Pakistan border in Fazilka. It envisages encouraging women to prevent the men in their house from consuming drugs or indulging in smuggling. inside