Perturbed by the four-sided attack on the SAD-BJP Government over the issues of drug menace and law and order situation in Punjab, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Friday made attempts to defend the Government by doling out facts and figures.
His attempt to play down the drug menace and “deteriorating” law and order situation in the State comes at a time when the Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), are making a political issue out of it, with the State set to go for polls in less than four months.
Sukhbir, mincing no words to call the State Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal “biggest enemy of the State”, asked the “demon duo” to tender an “honest and unconditional apology” to the people of Punjab and its youth”.
“The anti-Punjab and anti-youth Amarinder-Arvind ‘demon duo’ should tender an honest and unconditional apology to the people of Punjab and its youth for conducting a dangerous image distortion fraud against them by branding the children of the land of the Gurus as a generation of drug addicts,” said Sukhbir while addressing the media.
He said that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal launched and is carrying out a decisive war on drugs and has successfully enlisted a wide-base popular support, especially from Punjabi youth against this social evil.
However, Congress and AAP entered into an unholy conspiracy to brand the entire Punjabi youth as a lost generation addicted to drugs and even funded Bollywood films to defame Punjab and Punjabi youth across the country and the world,” said Sukhbir.
He said that the “anti-Punjab leaders” must now disclose how they arrived at the figure of 70 per cent youth of Punjab being drug addicts. He said that the campaign launched by the Congress and AAP to brand Punjabis as drug addicts is akin to the Congress campaign of the eighties which branded all Sikhs as terrorists.
Maintaining that Punjab had led nation's war against drugs including cross border narco-terror, he said: “If not for us drugs originating from Afghanistan would have spread across the nation. We should be congratulated for leading the fight to safeguard the nation”.
Regarding test conducted during police recruitment drive, Sukhbir said that the government took a decision in this regard to make the factual position clear before the nation. “Now, the defamation campaign initiated against us stands thoroughly exposed as only 1.27 per cent of the tested 3.75 lakh youth have been tested positive for drug abuse…
The average drug abuse in case of both opioids is much below the national average,” he said.
Declaring that Punjab’s youth are “the best and the strongest in the world”, he hoped that the media would present a positive picture about the “scientifically proven tests” conducted on the youth that participated in the mega police recruitment drive.
“Even after such a comprehensive drive, Kejriwal and Amarinder still don’t stop defaming Punjab, they should be declared as anti-Punjab, anti-youth and consigned to the political oblivion which in any case is going to be a reality after next year’s assembly elections,” he said.
Meanwhile, Baba Farid Health University vice-chancellor Dr Raj Bahadur, whose institution had been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the tests by the Punjab government, said only 1.27 percent candidates (4501) were tested positive for drug use. “Some candidates, who had used performance enhancers, were given an opportunity to get themselves retested and 1672 candidates cleared the subsequent test,” he said.
Dr Raj Bahadur said that the most significant is that the incidence of drug use in youth in Punjab was less than the national, Asian and global averages.
Quoting UNODC study, he said that the global and Asiad percentage of opiod use was 0.3 percent and the use in India was 0.7 percent. “In comparison to this, opiod use percentage revealed in the study on police recruits was only 0.33 percent. Similarly, against global cannabis percentage use of 3.5 percent, Asiad use of 1.6 percent and national use of three percent, the percentage opiod use revealed in Punjab was only 0.42 percent,” he added.
Giving details of the action taken against drug smugglers and drug trafficking, the state Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora said that Punjab had been the most effective in taking action against drug smugglers.
“14,483 cases had been registered against drug smugglers in Punjab in 2014 which formed 31 per cent of the percentage cases nationally. Similarly, 38 per cent of all arrests and seizures under the NDPS Act were recorded in Punjab in 2013. Punjab also recorded 46 per cent of all heroin recovered in the country and 31 per cent of opium in 2014,” he said.
DGP Arora said that Punjab had also freezed and forfeited properties worth Rs 227 crore of 195 smugglers after obtaining approval from the competent authority and administrator, NDPS Act, 1985. This was indicative of the success the State had achieved in striking out against big smugglers, he said.
The state Police chief said that Punjab had also achieved the distinction of recording the highest conviction rate against drug smugglers. He said that against a conviction rate of 67 per cent in 2006, the conviction rate had jumped to 80 and 81 per cent in 2014 and 2015 respectively.