Anti-drug campaign must reach every corner of Pb: Nabin

Pathankot: BJP president Nitin Nabin on Friday said that Punjab has to be freed of the scourge of drugs and the anti-drug campaign must be taken to every corner of the state. In Pathankot, the BJP chief flagged off the first of four statewide anti-drug Yatras from the Ekta Sthal.

The second Yatra will begin from Fatehgarh Sahib on September 19, followed by the third from Fazilka on September 20, and the fourth from Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda on September 21.

Together, the 13-day ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’ will traverse around 4,000 km across all the 117 Assembly constituencies in Punjab to create awareness against the menace of drugs, especially among the youth, BJP sources said.

Upon the culmination of the four Yatras, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a rally in Jalandhar on September 30. Addressing a public gathering, Nabin said, “I have come from Patna with one message – we have to take this anti-drug campaign to every corner of the state. We have to make Punjab drug-free.”

“Today, we are facing an enemy which silently enters our villages, our homes and gradually takes the entire family under its grip. This enemy is drugs and we have to end this scourge. “I am not here just to flag off a yatra, but to launch a fight against drugs with a pledge that we will root out the menace,” he added. Nabin also targeted the Bhagwant Mann government, saying it only gives “tarikh pe tarikh” to end the drug problem, but nothing happens on the ground.

Senior BJP leaders, including its Punjab chief Kewal Singh Dhillon, Satish Poonia, Tarun Chugh, Sunil Jakhar, Manpreet Singh Badal, Saudan Singh, Preneet Kaur, Raghav Chadha and Iqbal Singh Lalpura were present on the occasion. With Assembly elections due in Punjab early next year, the BJP plans to build its poll campaign around the issues of drugs and “deteriorating” law and order in the state.

The party has roped in Union ministers and several senior leaders to be part of its anti-drug campaign. Punjab BJP chief Dhillon said the drug problem has destroyed families yet the AAP government has done nothing to curb the menace.

If the BJP forms the government in Punjab, it will wipe out the drug menace, Dhillon said, pointing at the party’s performance record in states governed by it.

The BJP has eliminated Naxalism in states affected by it, besides putting an end to gang violence in Uttar Pradesh and the violence in Kashmir, he claimed.

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The Hans India