Chandigarh, Mar 11 (KNS): BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh on Wednesday said the arrest of an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sarpanch with 18 kg of heroin in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district had exposed what he termed the “hollowness” of the Bhagwant Mann government’s claims of cracking down on the drug menace in the state.
In a statement, Chugh said the arrest by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had raised questions about the state government’s anti-drug campaign, “Yudh Nashian Virudh”, under which the Punjab Police has been claiming action against narcotics networks.
Describing the development as “shocking”, Chugh said the fact that the arrest was made by a central agency highlighted the limitations of the state police’s campaign against drugs.
He also referred to a recent incident in Jalandhar where the son of a police personnel allegedly died due to drug abuse, saying it reflected the seriousness of the drug problem in Punjab.
Chugh recalled that during the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal had promised to eliminate the drug menace within 15 days of forming the government.
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“Four years later, the situation has become so alarming that even elected representatives at the village level are being caught in narcotics cases,” he said, adding that the development raised questions about the promises made by the AAP leadership to the people of Punjab.
The BJP leader also questioned the Punjab government over the “Drug Census” announced in last year’s state budget.
He said the government had allocated around Rs 150 crore for the exercise to assess the scale of drug abuse and frame a policy response but had not made public any findings so far.
Chugh asked the state government to clarify what happened to the proposed survey, where the data was and how the allocated funds had been utilised.
He said the people of Punjab deserved transparency and a clear strategy to address the drug problem in the state.(KNS).