AAP will end Punjab drug menace in a month, claims Kejriwal

Sounding the poll bugle in Punjab, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said his party would end the drug menace and mafias in Punjab within a month.

Addressing a rally in Amritsar to announce party’s youth manifesto, Kejriwal claimed that the AAP will register an impressive win in the assembly elections in Punjab. He said surveys have shown that the AAP would win 100 of the 117 seats in the state.

Hitting out at the SAD-BJP government in the state for its failure to control drug problem, the Delhi CM said all those involved in the drug trade, including revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia, police officials and politicians would be put in jails once the AAP forms government in Punjab.

Majithia had filed defamation cases against Kejriwal, AAP’s Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh and Ashish Khetan accusing them of tarnishing his image and also of his family members through false, malicious allegations.

“We will form a special drug task force to make Punjab a ‘nasha mukt’ state. The Akalis and Congress are hand in glove... they both have looted the state for years. But you have an alternative now as AAP will provide clean governance,” he said.

With the “anti-drug campaign” one of the major focus in the 51-point Manifesto, Kejriwal announced that, “When in power, AAP will start round the clock Anti-drug toll free number, bring special law to give life imprisonment till life for guilty drug peddlers, facilitate post treatment rehabilitation of addicts.”

Announcing the AAP youth manifesto, Kejriwal promised 25 lakh jobs to the youth and said no application fee would be charged from job seekers. He also announced to do away with interviews for jobs in the state.

AAP leaders Bhagwant Mann, Such Singh Chhotepur, Ashish Khetan, Kanwar Sandhu and Gurpreet Ghuggi also targeted the government in their address.

What youth manifesto promises

Welfare

· AAP will not withdraw any subsidy

· Schemes such as atta-dal, free electricity to farmers to continue

· No change in reservation policy

· Subsidy schemes for farmers, Dalits and poor to continue

· No politician or relative will be eligible for government contracts

Drugs

· To chalk out a comprehensive anti-drug policy

· Break drug supply chain in a month

· Special drug task force to check menace

· Round-the-clock anti-drug toll free number

Employment

· To provide 25 lakh jobs in five years

· Training academy for girls vying for police and paramilitary forces

· Abolition of application fee from job seekers

· To open skill development university in the Doaba region

· Will set up foreign employment youth board

Education

· Raise standard of education in government schools

· CCTV cameras in all government schools

· 29,000 vacant posts of schoolteachers to be filled

· Special scheme for meritorious girls

Sports

· Reward for medal winners to be hiked

· Establish sports university in state

First Published: Jul 03, 2016 22:43 IST