Amritsar, November 10
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today appealed to the ‘Mai Bhago Di Fauj’ to start an ‘andolan’ against drugs on the pattern of the Kisan Andolan, asserting “only a large scale sustained campaign by those who are most affected by this menace can eradicate it once and for all”.
The Bathinda MP, who addressed huge gatherings of women at Attari and Raja Sansi, said, “I appeal to you to start a mass movement against drugs by forming ‘jathas’ to make these messengers of death aware that you are fully organized to take them on. You should also start ‘thikri pehra’ in your villages to deny access to drug traffickers”.
Asserting that the women themselves would have to take charge of the fight against drugs, Harsimarat said, “Both the previous Congress and the present Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governments have failed you. Instead of fulfilling their ‘guarantee’ to end this menace they have presided over its spread”. She also accused the AAP government of betraying women by promising them Rs 60,000 but disbursing only Rs 3,000 with the aim of purchasing their votes. “Is this ‘satkar’ (respect) for women or an insult to them?” She said if anybody had respected women as a chief minister, it was Parkash Singh Badal who started the ‘Shagun’ scheme for them besides distributing cycles to girls and initiating the ‘aata –daal’ scheme. “All this and more was done without giving any guarantee”, she added.
Harsimrat also disclosed that the situation had become such that Punjab was ranked number one in drug smuggling and number two in drug overdose deaths. “Even while we have achieved this dubious distinction under AAP rule, we have gone down to the eighteenth position in education and health parameters nationally. This is the reason why women are coming up to me everywhere and telling me they have no demand except ending the drug menace in the State”.
Stating that enough was enough, Harsimrat said the SAD would take on the responsibility of ending the drug menace once it formed the government in 2027. She said the next SAD government would form a special task force headed by a women DGP to probe all data recorded by the Mai Bhago Di Fauj members and ensure exemplary punishment to all drug offenders. She also detailed that a rehabilitation programme would also be initiated for drug addicts who would be skilled and given loans to make a new beginning. “A new law will also be introduced to deny bail to all drug traffickers for ten years besides seizing all their property to compensate their victims.
