Amritsar/Punjab (October 15, 2012): Dal Khalsa has joined issue over the on-going blame-game between different shades of politicians on the rampant drug abuse in Punjab.
In a joint statement party’s spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh and youth affairs head Ranbir Singh said though Rahul Gandhi’s statement that 70 percent of Punjabi youth were drug addict was exaggerated one, yet the situation was alarming.
Dal Khalsa
They said while the menace of drug abuse has threatened to consume the young generation, unfortunately Akalis and Congressmen were engaged in a war of words over the percentage of drug addicts. “All parts of Punjab were in the octopus-like grip of different kinds of alcohol and drug abuse. It was a sad irony that the gregarious Panjabi is today leaning on loneliness, misery and stress”, they added.
Coming down heavily on successive central governments they said the state machinery, either due to negligence or as part of a grand design, was ensuring the availability of drugs from other states. “We believe at one level, it was a part of the design to engage the Punjabi youth in drugs as a weapon to check their political consciousness and to counter the fighting spirit in them”. They blamed politicians, whether they are associated with SAD-BJP or Congress, for lack of political will to make Punjab free from drugs.
They said the younger generation was a victim of manufactured drugs. Smack from neighboring states reaches Punjab through the complicity of the police, administration and politicians. Bogus pharmaceutical companies in Delhi and Gurgaon manufacture fake drugs and they are sold in bulk in Punjab without bill and prescription, in clear violation of the Drug and Cosmetic Act.
Suggesting certain measures, they said the Punjab government must launch a special Health Awareness and Sports participation programme and added that the SGPC should tie-up with UN agencies for a long term solution to the drug abuse menace.
“The centre government should be asked to set up a special task force to stop drug trafficking along the international borders of Punjab and the local borders adjoining neighboring states of Rajasthan, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh”.