Mansa, Sep 22 Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday said the ‘Mawaan-Dheeyan’ (mothers and daughters) of Punjab would not let Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann run away from his responsibility of ending the scourge of drugs.
The Bathinda MP, who addressed a women’s conference here and at Sardulgarh, also led ‘Insaaf’ marches at both places and handed over memorandums to executive magistrates calling for justice and effective rehabilitation of all families devastated by the scourge of drugs.
Speaking at the conferences, Harsimrat Badal said if SAD forms the next government, it will bring a new law to deny bail in drug cases for 10 years.
She said SAD alone could end this menace once and for all and even had an action plan for it.
“We will bring in a new law to deny bail in drug cases for 10 years besides instituting life imprisonment for this crime and seizHarsimrat Badaling all properties of drug smugglers,” she said, according to a statement.
She urged Punjabis to oust the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the next year’s assembly polls if they truly wanted to end the drug menace in the state.
Badal claimed that the very fact that the AAP government had ordered preventive detention in only seven cases under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (PIT NDPS) despite registering 2.17 lakh offenders proved it was not serious about tackling the drug menace in the state.
“The Act could have been used to act against drug lords who operate under proxies besides those who secure bail repeatedly due to inefficiencies in police probes,” she said.
Asserting that this state of affairs could not be allowed to continue, Badal said, “Our mothers and daughters have now picked up the gauntlet. We will hold the drug smugglers to account and force the government to take action against them.
“We will also not allow the chief minister to run away from his responsibility of eradicating this menace as promised.”
Drugs are even available freely in jails, a department under the chief minister, she alleged.
Badal asserted that in stark contrast, no one had the courage to sell ‘chitta’ (drugs) on the streets during the SAD period in governance.
Claiming that both the Congress and AAP had failed them, the MP said former chief minister Amarinder Singh had claimed that he would end the drug menace in four weeks.
“Bhagwant Mann promised to end this scourge in four months,” she said, while adding her party alone could end this menace.
(PTI News)
