Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Hoshiarpur, June 26

Punjab's drug menace, a sore point between the two alliance partners Akali Dal and BJP, again led to a public showdown between the two. The occasion was the state level function to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illegal Trafficking, where BJP leaders chose to maintain that the state had the highest drug abuse ratio, a fact vehemently denied by Chief Minister and Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal.

The BJP leadership, especially Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot, left the Punjab Chief Minister red faced as he pointed out during the press conference that “Punjab is the state with the highest percentage of addicts in India, which had come out in a survey that the Centre had got conducted through various agencies”.

Badal immediately countered the Union Minister saying that it was a five-year old survey and was completely baseless in the present scenario as “no new cases of addicts had come up in the last five years and rather those who were hooked were already being rehabilitated”.

Union Minister of State Vijay Sampla, who realised that the arguments between the two were getting too intense, asked Gehlot to stand up and leave the venue as Badal continued clarifying his position.

The Punjab CM was feeling cornered as BJP leaders kept harping on the problem of increasing drug addiction in Punjab. Gehlot was forthcoming on the issue despite a strong statement from SAD leaders, including Jails Minister Sohan Singh Thandal and Garhshankar MLA Surinder Singh Bhullewal Rathan, that “the Central leaders were coming to Punjab and maligning its image by pointing to drug addiction in the state”.

They had been referring to the recent similar statement given by Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to Anandpur Sahib on its 350th foundation day celebrations.

Gehlot said, “We are getting reports of increasing incidents of drug addiction in Punjab which need to be looked into seriously. We, at the Centre, can only pump in funds for setting up de-addiction and rehabilitation centres, for salaries of staff, running cost of centres, medical services, skill training courses, etc. The rest has to be done from here to restore the pride of Punjab”.

Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla added fuel to the fire saying, “The truth is that we cannot run away from the problem and have to admit that addiction problem is of grave concern in Punjab”. BJP national vice president Avinash Rai Khanna pointed out that the illicit drug trade had been spreading and needed to be looked into jointly by the Centre and the state.

BJP chief Kamal Sharma said “drug addiction had assumed a more alarming proportion than terrorism.” Badal said drug addiction was a problem not just in Punjab but across India. Seeming jittery, he kept following his old argument saying, “Smack and heroin are coming from across the border. Poppy husk is coming to Punjab from other states. Synthetic drugs are being manufactured in HP and Punjab is no where responsible for the problem.”