New Delhi/Chandigarh, December 4
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today asked the central government to take effective steps to stop drug smuggling and trafficking as it controlled the international border with Pakistan and also had jurisdiction over several border districts through the Border Security Force.
Speaking on this issue in parliament Harsimrat said this was also needed as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had miserably failed to control drug trafficking which was spoiling the future of an entire generation. The Bathinda MP said as per the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Punjab had not only recorded the most cases vis a vis drug trafficking with 19 per cent of all cases across the country originating in the State, but also the highest crime rate and the most drug overdose deaths.
Asserting that Punjab was suffering an existential crisis as pointed out by the high court which had asked the AAP government to file a reply on the free flow of drugs in the State as well as their subsequently trafficking, Harsimrat said the AAP government’s failure to control this menace had created more peddlers than users. “A situation has come where children are being used to peddle drugs. There is an instance of a couple selling their five month old child to finance their drug habit. People in villages are openly writing on walls and pointing out specific places where ‘Chitta’ (chemical drugs) are being sold but to no avail”.
Asserting that the rot had seeped into the system, Harsimrat said drug traffickers continued their business from jail with 43,000 calls related to narcotics being made from one jail alone. She also pointed out a video from the Mansa jail which showed drugs being sold openly in the jail premises. “In the light of this strong, assertive action is required from the central government to save lives of people of Punjab”, she added.
