Chandigarh: Senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh today accused BJP of “politicking” on the issue of drugs menace in Punjab.
He said, the party lacked any will to take any corrective measures which were well within its power and was resorting to “politicking and game of one upmanship with its alliance partner, the Akali Dal, in Punjab”.
Congress' Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha said that the Shiromani Akali Dal was “equally responsible as it had been patronising the production and trade of the synthetic drugs in Punjab..”
He alleged that while opium and poppy husk was coming from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the Akalis have ensured easy and smooth supply of synthetic drugs in Punjab, a charge rubbished by the SAD, whose senior leader Daljeet Singh Cheema said that Congress was known to “only shed crocodile tears over the sensitive issue and politicise it”.
Reacting to the BJP's proposed campaign to be lanched from Amritsar by its chief Amit Shah later this month against drug menace, the former Chief Minister asked, “what has the BJP government at the Centre done about the issue during last seven months?”
He said, Punjab does not need any awareness campaign as people are very much aware as they have been suffering and paying a hard way for this scourge.
“What we need is thorough corrective measures to stop the production and supply of drugs that is made easy as it is legal in states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan,... and since Punjab is in the immediate neighbourhood it finds an easy market here,” he said.
He said since there are BJP governments in both the states and at the Centre it is the right time for evolving a consensus about formulating the National Drug Policy.
“What we need is proactive action which can be initiated by the Government of India by formulating a National Drug Policy,” he said in a statement here while reminding Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the letter he had written to him in June last year seeking national drug policy as the only viable and permanent solution to address the issue.
The former Chief Minister regretted that no action has been taken till now.
“I only got an acknowledgement of the letter and nothing else,” he disclosed.
The Amritsar MP further said, he had been calling for the policy since the days when he was the Chief Minister between 2002 and 2007.
“I know this is not the ultimate solution, but this can be the beginning in the right direction,” he remarked.
Amarinder claimed that he had repeatedly been making this demand during the Chief Ministers' conferences also, some of which were attended by Modi in his capacity as the then Chief Minister of Gujarat.
