UK offers technical assistant to fight Punjab drug menace

 Chandigarh, May 9

With the Punjab government launching a drive against the drug menace, the UK on Tuesday offered technical assistance to the state in the enforcement of drug control measures.

Britain also evinced keen interest to scale up business engagement with the state.

The issues came up for discussion at a meeting here between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and British Deputy High Commissioner to India Andrew Ayre who invited the chief minister to visit the UK to meet industrialists for attracting investments to the state, said an official spokesperson.

The British envoy also offered assistance to Punjab in the training and modernisation of the police force, as well as in handling cyber crime, with the two sides agreeing to explore mutual cooperation across a wide range of subjects, including law and order, industrial development, agriculture, dairy farming, and animal sex embryo transfer, among others.

Amarinder also suggested working together in the fields of urban management, civil services, transportation in big cities, and other areas, said the spokesperson.

The British envoy said his government was looking to raise Punjab to the highest category in terms of business cooperation, for which the two sides could identify several important areas.

Noting that his government was in the process of eliminating the red tape and promoting ease of doing business in the state, the chief minister directed government officials to arrange a meeting with British officials to identify areas of mutual cooperation.

Pointing out that the previous Akali regime had turned a "blind eye" to the drug problem, Amarinder said his government had made significant advances in arresting the flow of drugs and the Special Task Force was on the verge of cracking down on some big fish.

He reiterated that India needed a comprehensive national drug policy, which he had already raised with the Centre.

It was decided at the meeting that the chief of the Special Task Force (STF) on drugs would meet British enforcement experts to discuss cooperation in fighting the drug menace in Punjab, in view of the smuggling of drugs into and out of India to other countries.

The two sides also discussed law and order problems and the financial crisis facing Punjab, with the chief minister apprising the envoy of the work done by his government to tackle the same.

The task force set up by his government to deal with the gangs that had "mushroomed" during the Akali rule had met with significant success, with several gangsters already in the police net, said Amarinder.

On the fiscal crisis in the state, he said his government was making all-out efforts to get Punjab's economy back on the growth track and he had received excellent response from both domestic and foreign industry that are keen to invest in Punjab.

Elaborating on the "financial mess", inherited from the previous regime, Amarinder said his government would soon come out with a white paper to highlight the situation on the ground.

Pointing out that 9 million youth in the state were unemployed, the chief minister said his government was looking for ways and means to rescue the state from the abyss into which it had been plunged in the past 10 years.

He also sought the UK's support in promotion of modern agricultural practices, dairy farming and sex embryo transfer to check the uncontrolled birth of male calves that are seen to destroy farm crops. — PTI