The Punjab government has been charged with neglecting the youth and driving them to desperate measures.
"In Punjab, youth frustration because of unemployment has led to the dependence on drugs, which are available easily," state Youth Congress president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary said here on Wednesday during a door-to-door campaign for Vijay Sathi, Congress candidate in the local assembly byelection.

Campaigning in wards 1 to 3 on Tuesday night, Chaudhary raised the issue of women's safety, saying that they were insecure because of the deteriorating law and order situation in Moga, as there were incessant chain snatchings and robberies. "The Congress candidate received a good response from young people and women who will vote in the election," he added.

Chaudhary sought a thumping mandate for Sathi. "There is a strong wave against Jain in Moga," said the PYC president. "We can sense it in poor colonies and among young people, most of whom are educated and unemployed." He condemned the statement of the SAD president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, that there would be more defections from the Congress, as "evidence of his power-drunk attitude".