The narcotics crisis in India’s northern Punjab state, declared 'more deadly' than the Sikh conflict of the 1980s, is to be tackled with drastic measures after it killed at least 30 people last month.

Amrinder Singh, the state's Chief Minister, has directed over 350,000 state employees, including his entire cabinet and all police personnel to undergo annual dope testing.

Mr Singh also demanded that drug peddlers should face the death penalty, and claimed they were systematically ‘destroying’ an entire generation of Punjabis.

Studies by non-governmental organisations and activists have found that over two-thirds of over 5.51 million households in the state had at least one drug addict in the family.

A recent study by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Punjab’s capital Chandigarh found that 3.1 million Punjabi’s were dependent either on heroin, opium, cannabis or other narcotics.

The majority of these drug users, mostly in rural areas in the predominantly agricultural state, were males aged between 16 and 35 years, the report said.