Chandigarh, August 31
Hours before Punjab affairs in charge Harish Rawat’s visit to Chandigarh, PCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu today questioned the incumbent Congress and previous Akali governments on “inaction” against those involved in drug peddling.
Making regular seizures: CM
Defending the work done by his government against drugs, Capt Amarinder Singh said regular recoveries were being made. “Today we have caught 70 kg heroin. We have put 46,000 persons involved in drugs cases in jails,” said the CM, avoiding a direct reply to queries raised by Sidhu.
The PCC president, in a statement, said people of the state were eagerly awaiting the report of the special task force (STF) on Bikramjit Majithia, former Akali minister and brother-in-law of former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The STF report on Majithia in the Rs 6,000-crore Bhola drug racket is likely to be opened by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 2.
The PCC chief said as the date was approaching, all eyes were on the High Court, and people, especially those who had lost innocent children to the drug menace, had high hopes that stern action would be taken against the accused. Questioning “inaction” by successive governments, Sidhu said despite the High Court directions, both dispensations failed to extradite the 13 drug smugglers, who peddled and smuggled contraband, to India. “These drug smugglers operated under the cover of government security using VIP vehicles,” he alleged.
The state Congress chief said even a common man could sense why drug smugglers had not been extradited for the past five years. “Because had they been brought to book, they would have spilled the beans and exposed the unholy nexus of drug peddlers and politicians,” he added. — TNS
Navjot Singh Sidhu questions Punjab Govt ‘inaction’ on drugs
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