J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

Control drug menace or quit, Khaira tells Badal
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 17
Instead of sitting together to make a strong policy for curbing alarming drug addiction in Punjab, both Akali and Congress leaders have been blaming the UPA and Badal governments, respectively, especially since AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi had stated during his recent visit to Punjab that seven out of 10 Punjabis are drug addicts.

Now criticising Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Parkash Singh Badal for drug menace in the state, the Congress has asked him to quit as CM if he is unable to control drug menace in the state.

Responding to Badal’s recent statement, Khaira said, “If Badal, who is in his fifth term as CM, cannot curb the drug menace in a small state like Punjab, he has no moral authority to remain as CM even for a day. He should either quit immediately or curb drugs with an iron hand and stop passing the buck to the Central Government for his own failures.”

Badal recently stated that the international border with Pakistan was porous and that the BSF was not doing its job well. Khaira said, “That has nothing much to do with the drug abuse by Punjab youth.”

Khaira said, “As we are aware Afghanistan is the main source of opium, which is routed through Pakistan into India, from where it is converted into cocaine and heroin to be sent to countries like Canada and the USA. Once in the international market, cocaine and heroin become very costly drugs, beyond the reach of an ordinary person, for example 1 gm of cocaine would cost Rs 10,000.”

“On the contrary, the real problem of drugs in Punjab is due to local cheap drugs such as smack, poppy husk, opium, chemical or synthetic drugs, capsules and tablets in abundance or morphine injections, etc. The drugs are easily available in every nook and corner of the state and this definitely is not possible without the police-politician nexus. Our unemployed and frustrated youth cannot afford costly international drugs such as cocaine or heroin as suggested by Badal, thus they fall prey to local available cheap drugs,” he added.