Nawanshahr- Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, Chairman, Cabinet Sub-Committee on ‘War Against Drugs’ today announced that in this decisive step to deal with the illicit drug trade, a strict zero tolerance policy has been adopted against persons involved in drug trafficking. He said that no person involved in this evil or trying to protect the culprits, regardless of his position or influence, would be spared.
Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, while addressing a meeting with the civil and police administration at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar during the second phase of his tour of various districts to promote the ‘War Against Drugs’ campaign across the state, said that during the ‘War Against Drugs’ campaign, 530 FIRs were registered, 697 persons were arrested and a huge quantity of narcotics including 42 kg heroin, 15 kg opium and 41027 narcotics were recovered from across the state from March 1 to March 5.
The Finance Minister said that various activities are being carried out in the state under the supervision of senior police officers, which include cordon and search of hotspots, checking of jails for mobile phones, checking of chemist shops, raids on known smugglers, drug peddlers and couriers, besides meetings with students in schools and colleges in urban and rural areas to promote participation of common people in the campaign and ‘Sampark’ meetings as part of the anti-drug campaign. Emphasizing the important role of drug inspectors in the ‘War on Drugs’ campaign, Finance Minister Cheema directed the civil and police administration to intensify their efforts against the sale of banned drugs.
Speaking to the media later, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that during the previous Congress government, the conviction rate was 58 per cent, but under the AAP-led state government, it has increased to 86 per cent in the last three years and the target is to take it to 100 per cent. He mentioned the impressive performance of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, where the conviction rate has been recorded at 99 per cent. He said that during this period not a single defaulter has got bail and out of 46 cases, 44 have been sentenced.
The Finance Minister said that before the Akali-BJP government from 2007 to 2017, no one had even heard of Chitta (synthetic drugs). Even Captain Amarinder Singh's swearing-in at Sri Talwandi Sabo proved futile during his tenure and later Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi also failed to curb drug menace in the state. He further said that now most of the drug smugglers are behind bars, their properties are being confiscated and the rest have either left the business or are fleeing the state.
On this occasion, Deputy Commissioner Ankurjit Singh, SSP Dr. Mehtab Singh, Vice Chairman Punjab State Technical Education Board Lalit Mohan Pathak (Ballu), Chairman District Planning Committee Satnam Jalalpur, Vice Chairman Punjab Water Resources Management and Development Board Kuljit Singh Sarhal, Chairman Municipal Improvement Trust Nawanshahr Satnam Singh Jalwaha, Chairman Market Committee Nawanshahr Gagan Agnihotri, Chairman Market Committee Banga Balbir Karnana, Trustee Municipal Improvement Trust Nawanshahr Harjot Kaur Lohatia, Youth Secretary Robi Kang, Additional Deputy Commissioner (G) Rajiv Verma, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Rural Development) Avneet Kaur, Sub Divisional Magistrate Balachaur Ravinder Bansal, Sub Divisional Magistrate Banga Vipin Bhandari, besides officers of civil and police administration were present.