As the one-month deadline Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh set for himself before elections to eliminate drugs from the State after forming the Government ending on Sunday, the Special Task Force (STF) claimed to have made 1468 arrests in just four weeks since March 16.
The STF, constituted by Capt Amarinder Government under ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu to combat drugs problem in the State, claimed that it was “all set” to launch an extensive operations to apprehend the “big fish and confiscate their ill-gotten properties”.
Personally monitored by the Chief Minister, STF has several major drugs dealers on its radar and is preparing to come down heavily on them in the coming few weeks, read the Government’s official statement.
It claimed that the STF has successfully choked trans-border and interstate-border drugs supply lines, with a whopping 1277 cases registered under the Narcotics and Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. “The cases and arrests are approximately double than those reported last year in the same period, that is from March 16, 2016, to April 14, 2016,” stated STF chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu.
The statement, quoting Sidhu, claimed that the STF, armed with a multi-pronged approach, joined by various State police and intelligence agencies, has cracked down on the drugs trade in the State in a big way, virtually strangulating the supply of all types of drugs in the State.
Though the formal notification on the constitution and the terms of reference of the STF came on Friday, the STF had plunged full steam into acting against the drugs scourge since the beginning of April.
Capt Amarinder has given Sidhu a free hand to manage the anti-drugs operations as he deems fit to eliminate the menace from the State.
He has also directed the STF to launch an all-out attack on the big fish involved in trafficking and trading of narcotics drugs in the State. Sidhu himself has extensively toured the whole State to brief and guide the District Police on the action to be taken as part of the anti-drugs campaign. Officers and officials of known credentials have been posted in the STF to carry out this mammoth task.
As per the data collated by Sidhu’s team, a total of 31.804 kg heroin, (including 24.4 by the Border Security Force), 1.527 kg smack, 2.272 kgs of charas, 81.99 kgs of opium (including 0.065 kgs by BSF), 2812.555 kgs of poppy husk, 169.223 kgs of ganja, 14.855 kgs of bhang, 34.911 kgs of intoxicant powder, 3201 vyles of injections and 336314 pills or capsules have been seized as part of the Government crackdown on drugs in Punjab in the period from March 16 to April 14.
With the crackdown by STF and other agencies squeezing the availability of drugs, prices of narcotics have gone up in a major way, making it difficult for drug addicts to have access to narcotics.
Hundreds of addicts have knocked the doors of rehabilitation centres in these four weeks, with the STF now working on amending its rehabilitation approach to make it even more humane, said the Government spokesperson quoting Sidhu. Spokesperson added that the active cooperation of all sections of the society is being enlisted through awareness campaigns, rehabilitation of drug victims and prevention of drug abuse. The victims of drug abuse will be encouraged and motivated to get themselves treated in the drug de-addiction centres, said the spokesperson.
Notably, Capt Amarinder has sworn to get rid Punjab from the scourge of drugs within a month after forming the Government. Even as the Congress Government has been showing that it was making an all-out effort to deal with the menace, the claims and statements made by the Chief Minister and the officials was no different then what their predecessors used to make when they had also launched a multi-pronged campaign to deal with the menace.
With Capt Amarinder giving free-hand and clear cut instruction to the STF to catch only the big fish in the dirty pool of drugs, the experts are expecting for some big catch in the near future.