Aiming to take its anti-drug drive “Yudh Nashian Virudh” at the grassroots level by involving community participation, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal launched its second phase on Wednesday.
The government has roped in a team of 1.5 lakh volunteers, christened “Pinda de Pehredaar”, who will be part of Village Defence Committees (VDCs) to conduct anti-drug campaigns in nearly 13,000 villages across the state.
These VDCs will not only report drug smuggling at the local village level but also help the government in the rehabilitation of drug addicts.
At an event held at Lovely Professional University on Wednesday, both Mann and Kejriwal launched a special app for the VDCs to report information about the drug peddlers and a dedicated missed-call number “9899-100-002”, to allow more citizens to volunteer.
AAP’s Punjab affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia, along with a battery of cabinet ministers and top functionaries of the state government, were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said the first phase of the campaign had resulted in large-scale action against traffickers, high conviction rates and growing public participation, while the second phase will consolidate these gains to decisively dismantle drug networks across Punjab.
{{/usCountry}}Addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said the first phase of the campaign had resulted in large-scale action against traffickers, high conviction rates and growing public participation, while the second phase will consolidate these gains to decisively dismantle drug networks across Punjab.
{{/usCountry}}Kejriwal said the VDCs comprising 10-20 people had been constituted in all villages across the state to ensure that their respective villages were drug free.
“As many as 1.50 lakh people have volunteered to be part of these committees. Earlier, only the police and administration were working, but now these VDCs will work together to make Punjab drug-free. They have been trained and will provide information about drug sellers in their villages,” Kejriwal said.
He further explained that an app will be installed on their phones where they can report who was selling drugs, where the drugs came from and all related details. “Their identity will be kept confidential and they will be fully protected. All monitoring will be done at the Chief Minister’s Office to ensure action is taken and no local-level collusion is allowed. If anyone from the administration or police is involved, they too will be sent to jail,” Kejriwal said.
The VDCs will hold padyatras across every lane, corner, neighbourhood and village in Punjab to involve the entire state in this movement from January 10 to 30.
They will prepare a list of drug addicts, who will be taken to de-addiction centres. “When our government took over, these centres were in a terrible condition, but now they have air conditioning, CCTVs, televisions, good food and their capacity has been increased from 1,500 to 5,000 beds,” Kejriwal said.
He added that the implementation of the anti-drug campaign had yielded positive results as the conviction rate in the NDPS cases had gone up to 88% recently.
“Among the 28,000 cases that have reached the courts so far, 88% have resulted in imprisonment. Punjab has set a precedent and given vision to other states to fight drug menace with strong determination and conviction,” Kejriwal said.
He added that not just Punjab, drugs were sold openly in huge quantities in Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi and several others as well, but the respective governments in these states didn’t bother to come up with any sort of resolution to the menace.
Accusing the previous governments in Punjab, Kejriwal said during the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) government, the drugs were pushed into every lane and every household. “Many of their senior leaders, who are behind the bars now, were directly involved in the business. Later, during the Congress regime, Capt Amarinder Singh took an oath on the Gutka Sahib that he will eliminate drugs within a month, but nothing was been done during his tenure either,” he added.
During the AAP regime in Punjab, people have witnessed that the government used bulldozers to demolish properties acquired by drug peddlers illegally, he added.
“The biggest trafficker in Punjab, whose name made people tremble, whose name even the administration feared to utter, was arrested and sent to jail by this government, your government. No one earlier had the courage even to take his name, let alone send him to jail. The police were afraid, the administration was afraid and even senior leaders were afraid, but the AAP government had the courage to put him behind the bars,” said Kejriwal, while referring to the arrest of SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia.
Meanwhile, CM Bhagwant Mann said this fight against drugs had become a mass movement because drug abuse was not just a crime, but a social problem.
The chief minister added that only a mass movement can end drugs as police or government action alone was not enough.
“The previous governments patronised the drug trade, whereas the present government cracked down on it without fear. Despite drug recoveries in other states, Punjab alone has been unfairly defamed. This is part of a conspiracy and is completely unwarranted,” Mann said.
CM Mann said Punjab’s international border had been exploited by drug traffickers, but the government had adopted a zero-tolerance policy. “Those who spread misery by selling drugs are enemies of society, and they will not be spared at any cost. Phase 2 of Yudh Nashian Virudh will be more successful than Phase 1, and Punjab will script a new success story,” he said.
He added that drug addicts were victims who needed sympathy and treatment, and the state government will leave no stone unturned for their rehabilitation.
28,980 FIRs, 358 big fish arrested in Phase 1
Giving the overview of the first phase of the anti-drug campaign, launched on March 1 last year, Arpit Shukla, special DGP ( Law and Order), said the first phase focused mainly on complete crackdown on drug smugglers, besides cutting drug supply in the state and rehabilitation of the drug addicts.
“As many as 29,980 FIRs were registered under the NDPS Act across the state. Nearly, 358 big fish involved in drug smuggling were arrested, thus denting the drug supply chain in the past nine months. As many as 90,000 drug addicts were identified and provided required rehabilitation treatment in state-run drug de-addiction centres,” said Shukla.
He added that with Punjab sharing 550-km long border with Pakistan, ₹40 crore had been spent in these months for the strengthening of the second line of defence to tackle cross-border drug smuggling. “As many as 252 foreign drones carrying drugs and weapons have been neutralised ever since the state government launched its own anti-drone system as part of first phase of war against drugs,” he said.