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Punjab governor to launch foot march against drug menace on April 3
Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria will lead a six-day padyatra against drug abuse, urging public participation for awareness and action.
Continuing his efforts to create awareness against the drug menace, Punjab governor Gulab Chand Kataria will undertake a six-day ‘padyatra’ (foot march) in the Majha region of the state from Thursday.
The governor has urged chief minister Bhagwant Mann, cabinet ministers, all state MPs, MLAs, chiefs of political parties and other stakeholders to join the padyatra, which will commence from Dera Baba Nanak on April 3 and culminate at Jallianwala Bagh on April 8.
“The war against drugs needs to be transformed into a people’s movement. All the stakeholders need to come forward to eradicate the scourge of drugs from Punjab,” Kataria said while interacting with media persons at Punjab Raj Bhawan here.
The governor said the foot march against the drug problem would cover Gurdaspur on April 3 and 4 and Amritsar over the next four days. He said the march would cover 7 to 8 km daily, describing it as part of the efforts in the ongoing war against drugs.
“The need of the hour is to identify the source of drug supply and deal with it,” he added.
Kataria stated that only when all the sections of the society, including educationists, religious heads, intellectuals and the common public, make consistent collaborative efforts this endeavour would reap the fruits of success.
“During the march, interactions with the residents of the villages and towns will also be held to inspire them to join this movement so that awareness against drugs percolates down to the grassroots level,” he added.
He further stated that the problem of drugs was not Punjab’s alone instead it afflicted the entire nation.
The governor said that he had sent letters and personally spoken to the chief minister and most of the cabinet ministers, MLAs and MPs, and several of them assured their participation, but there was no written confirmation so far.
When asked about the problems being faced by farmers whose fields are situated near the zero line and face difficulty in cultivating their land, Kataria said that he had gone there and talked to the village development committees.
“There is some area where some people have their fields 2-3km beyond the barbed-wire fence. They go there but face difficulties. The central government has sanctioned shifting the fencing by about 9km there and sanctioned funds for the same. The work will be started soon,” he added.
On funds from the Centre under the Border Area Development Programme, Kataria said that Punjab was getting funds from the Centre for the development of border areas, but it has not been coming for some time. “I took up the matter with the central government and received an assurance that they will be released funds for border area development. We have not received any information about their release,” he added.
