Chandigarh, May 29, 2019 (Yes Punjab News)
Punjab unit chief of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Sangrur Member of Parliament (MP) Bhagwant Mann has expressed his deep anguish over the deaths of youths in the state due to drug overdose, day in and day out. He has questioned the stoic silence being maintained by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh over the avoidable loss of innocent lives.
In a statement issued from party headquarters in Chandigarh, Mann said that the people, especially the youth, had suffered on many counts during the 10-year-long ‘misrule’ of the preceding Badal government when the drug menace had touched its zenith and taken a toll on the lives of thousands of youths in the state.
He lamented that Captain Amarinder Singh had failed miserably to deliver on his poll promise that he had pedaled among the people in the presence of Gutka Sahib – to take on the zombie of drugs and intoxicants four weeks after assuming power, stating that two and a half years had elapsed since his government took the reins of the state but nothing had come out of the narrative.
The AAP leader said that had the Amarinder Singh government been a little alive to the menace of drugs and given jobs to the youth, thousands of innocent lives would have been saved. He stated that his government was insensitive to the cause.
Referring to the death of 22-year-old Patiala youth in Ropar district due to drug overdose recently, Mann regretted that not a day passed when deaths by drug overdose were not reported from the state.
He further alleged that the nefarious trade drugs was going with impunity under the tacit support of the political big wigs and police administration, stating that drugs were now being supplied at the doorsteps while the government was turning a blind eye to the growing menace like its predecessors – the Badals.
Mann stressed the need for launching a relentless anti-drug campaign, which he said, should be free from political intervention, to track the drug lords/ smugglers and bring them their toes to end the menace once and for all, he said. He said the AAP and the people of the state would offer their unstinted support to the innovative campaign to save lives.
He further said the government should set up more rehabilitation centres in the state to treat the drug addicts. It should also generate enough employment avenues so the youths should go to their jobs instead of getting hitched by the menace of drugs and contribute in rebuilding a drug-free prosperous Punjab.
