Sukhbir Badal stands nailed on magnitude of drug menace: Channi

CHANDIGARH : The Congress Legislature Party leader Mr Charanjit Singh Channi today said the so called campaign against drugs stand exposed going by the reports that police nabbed mainly the addicts rather than going in for action against those involved in the drug smuggling.
He said even the FIRs amounted to filling in the blanks by way of changing the names and address with little change in the recovery shown against each name. The campaign was just a cover to counter the attack that the menace had spread its tentacles under patronage from the high and mighty in the Parkash Singh Badal government.
The CLP chief said the issue was not that of scoring brownie points but pertained to the future of the state going by the enormity of the problem and the involvement of the youth who were frustrated, unemployed and even unemployable. Channi took strong exception to the misleading campaign launched by the state government over the radio channels that the propaganda about Punjab having turned into drug haven was motivated. He advised the Deputy Chief Minister to go through his own party’s manifestos in which serious notice has been taken of the drug problem with promise to take remedial action including opening of more and more de-addiction centres. He said either he should admit that these manifestos were written without the knowledge of party leadership or that his party and the government had changed position on these crucial issues. He said the controversy having been triggered over the picture Udta Punjab should be viewed in the context of the Akali Dal manifestos as in case the problem had been recognized by the ruling party itself, why the film was being criticized as a motivated effort to stigmatise Punjab. He slammed the moves to throttle freedom of expression in this biggest democracy in the world. He called upon Sukhbir to read the newspaper reports regarding distribution of drugs even during elections to the general house of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in which the main political party has always been the Akali Dal.