Punjab will be made drug-free within one month: Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will make Punjab drug-free within one month if it comes to power in the next year’s assembly polls in the state, Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.

Speaking on the sixth day of his 11-day tour of the state here, he alleged that Akalis had “ruined” Punjab by making it a “hub” of drugs and AAP would take it a challenge to curb the menace within one month of formation of its government.

“So far more than 40 lakh youth of Punjab are trapped in the drug network, spread by Akalis and after formation of government in Punjab, AAP will break the supply chain of drugs within one month and drug-addicted youth would be rehabilitated by opening rehabilitation centres at war level within six months and giving them employment,” Kejriwal said.

Delhi Chief Minister said Congress is giving “false hopes” to the people of Punjab by claiming that it would fight against the drugs menace.

“Manmohan Singh government was in Centre for 10 years with simultaneous rule of Badals in Punjab, but Congress never acted against Cabinet Minister Bikram Majithia, who has been operating multi-crore drug racket in Punjab,” he alleged. In fact, Amarinder Singh opposed the CBI probe, which was being demanded against Majithia by the Congress, Kejriwal claimed.

“Both Badals and Amarinder have ruined Punjab during last 15 years and now the time is ripe to get rid of them for which people were waiting impatiently,” he said.

As Akalis have already smelled their “humiliating defeat” in the forthcoming assembly polls, they have allegedly colluded with Amarinder and “are contesting Punjab assembly polls jointly,” he alleged. Similarly, they have also joined hands to wave black flags at him (Kejriwal), otherwise, “I have never seen Akalis showing black flags to Congress leaders or vice versa,” he claimed.

Alleging growing cases of “atrocities” on Dalits in the state, he said AAP government would constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to re-open and re-investigate such cases to punish those found guilty.