Faridkot/Chandigarh, October 9
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said the ‘Maawan Dheeyan Di Fauj’ had started recording the names of drug traffickers and their patrons, all of whom would be taken to task once the SAD formed the government in the State.
Addressing a massive gathering of women along with party leader Parambans Singh Romana here, the Bathinda MP said “the women of Punjab have decided. Enough is enough. They have taken the war against drugs in their own hands and started recording the nefarious activities of drug traffickers as well as those who shield them from the law. Once a SAD government is formed we will form a task force under a woman DGP to take action against them. All the forms being filled up by the “Maawan Dheeyan Di Fauj” will be taken up for action. I can assure you the drug traffickers and their bosses will no longer remain in your midst. We will bring in a law to keep them in prison for ten years without the option of bail and also seize all their properties. Then only we will rest”.
Asserting that both the previous Congress as well as the AAP government had betrayed the women of the State, Harsimrat Badal said “both these governments promised to end the drug menace within months. Both promised you jobs. Both did nothing. She said it was even shameful that after pushing Punjab into an Rs 5 lakh crore debt and spending Rs 6,000 crore on self publicity, chief minister Bhagwant Mann was trying to buy off the loyalty of women by giving them Rs 3,000. “Don’t be misled by such devious tactics”, the MP told the women adding “even under the Rs 1,000 per month scheme you are due to get Rs 60,000 and not Rs 3,000”
Badal also detailed how Punjab was ranked number one in drug trafficking and number two in drug overdose deaths under the watch of AAP. She said the seriousness of the government to tackle this menace could be judged from the fact that it had ordered preventive detention in only seven cases under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (PIT NDPS) despite registering 2.17 lakh offenders. “The Act could have been used against drug lords who operate under proxies besides those who seek bail repeatedly but the government failed to do so”, she added.
Replying to a media query, the Bathinda MP said the chief minister was trying to deceive the people by claiming that his OSD Rajbir Ghuman as well as other middlemen had got a clean chit from the CBI. “If this is so then they should have come before the CBI to claim the clean chit instead of running away and approaching courts to seek relief”.
Asserting that the entire CMO was a den of corruption and that the chief minister’s family was also embroiled in corruption, Mrs Badal said “the recent ED investigation has proved that the CMO sold plum civil and police posts to the highest bidder for crores. The CM’s wife – Gurpreet Kaur Mann also negotiated an Rs five crore deal with a serial rapist to set him free from jail. “Such persons cannot be trusted with the reins of the State”, she added.
SGPC member Bibi Gurinder Kaur Bholuwala and Akali leader Sukhjeev Kaur Romana also addressed the gathering.