Punjab Governor backs AAP govt's anti-drug efforts, calls for public support

Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria backed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led state government’s efforts to curb the menace of drugs and said the problem is not region-specific but one the entire country is grappling with.

“But the survey suggests that the prevalence of drugs is higher in Punjab as compared to the national average,” said Kataria.

The Governor was in the city on Tuesday to dedicate a “Dark Room Lab” to children with special needs and intellectual disabilities at the Vani School for Hearing Impaired. The facility was built with a special fund of Rs 20 lakh provided by Kataria.

Speaking on the sidelines of the function, Kataria said that on the lines of the Central Government’s Nasha Mukt Bharat initiative launched in 2020, the AAP-led state government had also launched an anti-drug campaign titled Nasha Mukt Punjab.

“For the past two to three months, the state government has taken considerable initiative to curb the menace of drugs.

Besides huge seizures of drugs, they have taken bulldozer action and arrested over 23,000 drug peddlers. They have taken the first step; now it is the turn of society to support the initiative so that the menace can be rooted out of the state,” said Kataria.

He added that while Punjabis have made huge sacrifices for the country’s freedom and contributed significantly to its food security, they must now step forward to eliminate the drug menace.