Cong confronts CM with drug figures
Tuesday, 30/06/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Chandigarh : The Punjab Congress today challenged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the “monstrous” proportions that the drug menace had assumed in the state. It advised him to stop “misguiding” people as the data with his government on the matter contradicted his stance.
The party has asked Badal to refute the figures or tender an apology. The Congress has partly put into the public domain the data procured under the RTI Act on drug menace in the state since 2007 by the PPCC RTI cell chairman Dr Jasdeepak Singh.
According to it, the number of patients who have approached the de-addiction centres was 6,22,381. “It is an established fact that only a small portion of people approach de-addiction centres. This figure can safely be multiplied by five to get a rough estimate of the number of people hooked to drugs. Badal should tell the people in the state as to how many people who approached these centres were addicted to heroin which was smuggled from Pakistan as he has been laying the entire blame on smuggling from across the border,” said Dr Singh. The highest number (1,22,271) of cases have been reported from Bathinda, the constituency represented by Union Minister Harsimrat Badal.
“It seems that drugs are easily available in Bathinda. This is not possible without the patronage the Badal family,” the party said, adding these facts were well-known to Badal and as also to those patronising the drug trade. “It was for this reason that he had kept mum when Home Minister Rajnath Singh had raised this issue on June 19 at Anandpur Sahib,” it alleged.
