Harsimrat K Badal assures women SAD will rid Punjab of the scourge of drugs
(Says both Congress and AAP had betrayed them, holds CM personally responsible for creating a situation in which drugs were being home delivered)
Tarn Taran/Khadoor Sahib, November 13 - Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal today assured the women of Punjab that the SAD would rid Punjab of the scourge of drugs once it formed the government in 2027.
The Bathinda MP, who addressed massive enthusiastic gatherings of women here and at Khadoor Sahib, said “you have been betrayed by both the previous Congress as well as the present Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. Both these parties promised to put an end to the drug menace. Instead of doing that, they worked to proliferate it to such an extend that drugs are being home delivered in Punjab”.
Stating that there was no option but to finish this menace once and for all, Mrs Harsimrat Badal said earlier when she visited villages women used to demand upgradation of their schools besides clean drinking water and medical facilities. “Today they want nothing except an end to drug trafficking which is destroying an entire generation. Even as women are petrified about the safety of their children, they are afraid to expose drug dealers as this government intimidated whistle blowers and shelters the drug offenders”.
Asserting that the SAD had formed the Mai Bhago di Fauj to take on the drug dealers, she appealed to it’s members to form ‘jathas’ in their villagers to take on the traffickers. She also he said once a SAD government was formed a special task force headed by a woman DGP would be established to go after the drug mafia. “I appeal to the members of the Mai Bhago di Fauj to keep a record of those selling drugs as well as those who are providing shelter to them. We will take action against all the offenders”.
Mrs Badal also disclosed that a rehabilitation programme would be introduced for drug addicts and they would be offered skill sets to make a new beginning. She said a new law would also be put into place to deny bail to drug offenders for ten years besides seizing their property and compensating their victims.
Stating that the AAP government and chief minister Bhagwant Mann were directly responsible for this state of affairs, she said latest NCRB figures had revealed that Punjab was number one in the country in drug trafficking and number two in drug overdose deaths. She said even if one was to take an average of five drug related deaths in a single village in one year and calculate the total figure for 13,000 villages for five years the cumulative figure would come to 3.25 lakh drug related deaths. “If we take into account deaths due to drug overdoses in towns and cities also this figure will go up to five to six lakh deaths”, she added.
Mrs Badal also launched a frontal attack on the chief minister by asking him to tell which prominent drug lord he had arrested in the last five years and why no ‘chitta’ factory had been busted. She also asked him to explain why had had tortured Mohanjit Singh of Sheron for protesting against the sale of drugs in his village instead of giving him a hearing and taking action against the drug dealers and police officials.
Senior leaders who attended the event at Tarn Taran included Hargobind Kaur, Kanchanpreet Kaur, Parminder Kaur and Manjit Kaur Baht. Those attending the event at Khadoor Sahib included Ramandeep Kaur Sheron and Avtar Singh Billa Sheron. EOM Jangveer Singh