Akalis hail PGI study, Cong says it may be influenced

Chandigarh : The latest survey on the extent of drug addiction in Punjab by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Chandigarh (PGIMER) has the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party at loggerheads, while the Congress maintained whatever the extent of problem could be, its drive against drugs would continue. While the Akalis have been maintaining for long that the drug menace issue was overplayed on political considerations over the past several years, the AAP has rejected the survey report. State Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Bhagwant Mann tore into the survey figures that claimed less than 1 per cent of Punjabis were hooked on opiates, saying it was a farce. “The survey teams should accompany me to villages where almost all men are addicts. I wonder why the government opened drug de-addiction centres across the state, if the problem was not serious,” said Mann. SAD president Sukhbir Badal said, “The latest survey listing drug addiction in Punjab at less than 1 per cent has yet again nailed the lie of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and exposed the conspiracy of anti-Punjab forces that maligned the state and its people for their petty political goals.”