Chandigarh, February 14
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring today said that the state and Centre had “completely failed” to curb the drug menace after the overdose death of Aaksh Saini, a graduate and football player, in Amritsar, saying the situation in Punjab was “very alarming” and that “Punjab is dying”.
Reacting to the death, Warring said the claims of the AAP government’s anti-drug campaign ‘Yudh Nashya Virudh’ stood exposed and challenged the state government. He also referred to the march taken out by Governor Gulab Chand Kataria and his claims saying that the campaign of ‘Yudh Nashya Virudh’ had been successful, to produce concrete figures proving its success. “Mere FIRs will not finish drugs. We must accept there has not been any success in the fight against drugs. The focus should be on treating addicts through a comprehensive de-addiction process,” he said.
Pointing out that drugs were continuing to enter Punjab through drones from across the border, Warring said both the Punjab government and the BJP-led Centre had failed to stop the inflow. Targeting the AAP government, he termed it a “deaf and dumb” dispensation and accused it of spending large sums on ‘yatras’ and publicity while neglecting de-addiction programmes. “If the money spent on yatras had been used for de-addiction and rehabilitation, the results would have been different,” he said, adding that he had told Governor Kataria that the campaign had yielded “not a penny’s worth” of benefit.
Warring also alleged that the family of the deceased youth was pressured not to go for a postmortem and that there was haste for cremation. He claimed that media houses were being pressured not to run news related to overdose deaths. Referring to the victim’s father, a policeman, Warring said it was tragic that a helpless father had to sit beside his son’s body saying in desperation that to save children, people should leave Punjab.
Stating that drugs had not stopped even in villages, he said the anti-drug drive had not succeeded and questioned the government asking, “whom are you trying to befool”. He said tackling drug abuse was not an overnight job but required sustained and serious efforts, with emphasis on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation rather than “false assurances”.
