lashing at the leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha, Sukhpal Khaira over his attempts to secure political and personal gains by raising the bogey of drugs, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday said that the AAP leader evidently likes seeing his pictures in newspapers and on TV screens.
Capt Amarinder said that the State Government was well on way to eliminate drugs menace and the drugs smugglers were under immense pressure.
“The Government has tightened noose on drug smugglers and around 10,000 peddlers are in jail,” said the Chief Minister, adding that one of the kingpins was lodged in Hong Kong prison and efforts were on to secure his extradition.
The Government had information about three major drug suppliers having fled out of India, Capt Amarinder said adding that the price of heroin had shot through the roof and it’s all because of the success of the government’s anti-drugs campaign.
At the same time, Capt Amarinder said that he would ensure a probe into the allegation made by former Cabinet Minister Rana Gurjit Singh about an addict being pushed into drugs by a cop.
“With heroin and chitta scarce in the market, drug addicts are now resorting to the consumption of other mixtures, and even reportedly using anti-addiction drugs intravenously, to satisfy their cravings,” the Chief Minister said, citing information received from various sources.
He said that directives would soon be issued to ensure strict supervision by drugs to prevent misuse of such drugs by the drug addicts.
Calling for collective efforts by the Government, the police and the citizens to free Punjab of drugs, the Chief Minister urged every Punjab to come forward to take drug addicts to the de-addiction centres and join the battle against drugs.