Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
* SAD to hold three dharnas near international check points to create awareness and need for greater vigilance on border
Chandigarh, The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will now hold three dharnas near the international border check points to create awareness about drugs as well as focus on the need for greater vigilance along the border with Pakistan.
A decision to this effect was taken following a preparatory meeting of fourteen districts at the party office here which was presided over by SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal, party spokesmen Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema disclosed.
Mr Grewal and Dr Cheema said the three awareness dharnas would now be held near the Attari, Hussainiwala and Sadki check points in Amritsar, Ferozepur and Fazilka districts. The proposed dharna at Gurdaspur has been put off and now merged with the Attari programme. Party president Sukhbir Singh Badal will lead the dharna at Attari. SAD ministers will also participate in the programmes but in their private capacity and will not use their official cars for this purpose.
Addressing a meeting of the senior leadership of the party here, Mr Parkash Singh Badal said the fight against drugs was a shared responsibility of the centre and state governments and the people of the country. He said the SAD was not against the centre or the Border Security Force (BSF). “However sometimes you even have to make your own police (BSF) aware”, he said adding new techniques could be used to increase surveillance at the border to end entry of drugs from across the barbed wire fencing with Pakistan. Mr Badal gave the example of the United States border with Mexico adding the US government was also faced with similar challenges and had taken effective steps to control smuggling.
Stressing that Punjab was fighting the nation’s war against drugs, the SAD patron said it was unfortunate that the State was being defamed and even projected as if it was an “adda” of drugs. “If we had not taken proactive action and conducted the record seizures we have, these drugs would have travelled further into the country and created havoc”. He said vested interests earlier also had portrayed Punjabis as terrorists. “This is why we are holding these dharnas. We want to make everyone aware of the danger posed by the penetration of drugs from Afghanistan into Punjab and engage everyone in this war against drugs and give a clarion call for a “nasha mukt Bharat”.
Mr Badal also recapped the achievements of the Punjab government on both seizures of drugs as well as de addiction. “Lakhs of people have been de addicted at special camps organized by the government. I have visited these centers and interacted with the patients and can state that all of them have promised to stay away from this scourge now”, he added.
Earlier senior party leaders including Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Mr Balwinder Singh Bhundur and Jathedar Tota Singh also spoke on the occasion. Mr Dhindsa said drugs were not only affecting the youth of Punjab but of the country also. He commended the Punjab government for not only controlling drug smuggling but also launching and conducing a most massive de addiction campaign.
