The demand for catching “big fish” in the drug cases was, once again, heard loud and clear in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday with the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh assuring the House to act asking the leaders to give him “names”.
Claiming that the government has been successful in “breaking the backbone” of the drug mafia, Capt Amarinder challenged all those who had been pointing fingers at the Government for not acting against the “big fish”.
“You give me names if you have...we would catch them,” said Capt Amarinder, in reply to debate on the Governor’s address to the Vidhan Sabha.
Citing figures of the arrests and seizures in the drug cases, Capt Amarinder said: “We know one-two people who are out if the country, and we will also catch them,” said Capt Amarinder while vowing to continue “to fight the battle against drugs from the front, not resting till it is completely eliminated from the State”.
Earlier, Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains asked why no action has been taken against the persons whose names have been mentioned in the report submitted by the Special Task Force (STF) on drugs, then headed by Harpreet Sidhu.
“The names were mentioned in the STF report...your own cabinet minister had read the entire report before the media. Why no action has been taken against that? Every day, youngsters are dying due to overdose,” he asked.
Bains urged the Government to prepare the cases of the “big fish” and sent them to the courts “so that they should know what wrong they have done to the Punjabi youth” — a statement attracted thumping of benches from the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs.
Congress MLA Fateh Jung Bajwa also demanded to act against the persons named in the STF report.
Appreciating the State Government for paving way for conviction of Jagdish Bhola and Raja Kandola in multi-crore drug cases, Bajwa said that the STF report clearly mentioned who are the political people involved in the drug mafia, and we should act against them.
It may be recalled that the STF, then headed by Harpreet Sidhu, had submitted a “sealed” report in the Punjab and Haryana High Court during the hearing of the drugs case, which was later “leaked” in the media.
Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu held a press briefing with his wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu to target his arch rival SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia highlighting the portions where his names were appeared in the report. Sidhu couple had demanded Majithia’s immediate arrest claiming that the government now has “enough evidence” to act against him.
The issue was raised in the Vidhan Sabha during previous budget session, but the Chief Minister closed the chapter with the promise of looking into the “leaking of the sealed STF report”.
Before that, about 40 Congress MLAs had written to the Chief Minister seeking action against Majithia for his alleged involvement in drugs case.
Reportedly, a sense of resentment is prevailing among the Congress MLAs as their own government is unable to act against Majithia “despite evidence”.
A trailer of growing anger amongst the Congress legislators was seen on Monday when a war of words erupted between Sidhu and Majithia during the budget speech. Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa had expressed unhappiness, in the presence of Capt Amarinder, that their “own government is not acting against Majithia” when the Speaker had adjourned the House for few minutes during budget speech.