Punjab Congress on Friday demanded emergency session of Vidhan Sabha to discuss the law and order situation in the State.
“Punjab Congress demanded that Chief Minister should immediately call the emergency session of Vidhan Sabha and inform on the floor of the House about the preparedness of the State police towards the safety of common man in Punjab,” said party MlA and PPCC vice-president Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi.
The party will take this to streets among the people if this demand is not adhered to, he said.
“Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should tell the people of Punjab whether the state police is prepared for any terrorist attack like the one in Dinanagar recently. The police stations of Punjab are virtually without staff, most of the policemen are on the duty of VVIPs and halqa jathedars of ruling SAD,” he said.
Commenting on the statement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the Parliament, Sodhi said that already, he admitted that there were “big gaps and loose ends in the border areas of Punjab, especially the riverine terrain, which has very easy access for the terrorists, and moreover, due to strict vigil on the Jammu and Kashmir border, the terrorists are finding some alternate”.
lambasting Badal’s sangat darshan programs, Sodhi said that more alarming is when Badal goes for sangat darshan, which he does for 10 days in a month, the entire police machinery is busy arranging security for his programs. “Even the police from neighboring districts is also called for the arrangements of the sangat darshan,” he added.
Speaking on the drug menace in the state, Sodhi said that the menace has taken a horrifying shape in the state where already, according to the RTI information provided by the Punjab government, there are more than 6,30,000 patients who have approached and registered as drug addicts in different centres across the state.
“This is the government figure which does not reflect the people who don’t even approach these centres and this will be at least five times what has been given in the RTI…The astonishing fact which comes from this is that Bhatinda tops the number of drug addicts, which is the constituency of Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal,” he said.
He added, “The drugs are flowing here under the patronage of police and politicians. Already, certain ministers and top politicians belonging to the SAD and BJP have been grilled by the Enforcement Directorate on drug trade. The question is what has the Chief Minister done in last eight years to address this serious problem.”
Sodhi added that Badal “runs from his responsibility saying that it is cross border and central government should take care of this...Can Badal tell what is the status of Drug Prevention Board he had constituted, what have they done to curb this menaceIJ”