Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
* Orders Punjab Police to break supply chain of drug smugglers in a month
Chandigarh: The Punjab Deputy Chief Minister, S. Sukhbir Singh Badal has issued strict instructions to the Punjab Police to register cases against drug lords operating in state and attach their properties. He gave the deadline of a month to break supply chain of drug smugglers and put them behind bars.
Chairing a review meeting of SSPs of all the districts here today, the Deputy Chief Minister said it should be ensured that no cases are registered against innocent people and corruption should be rooted out at thana level. He said that as part of a specialized campaign against drugs, people must be made aware at village level and at ward level in urban areas and also police officers from ADGP to SP rank should hold public meetings and exhort people to co-operate in eliminating drug menace.
S. Badal further asked for total diligence and devotion to duty on the part of police personnel to put a complete stop to the cross border infiltration of narcotics. Calling for spreading awareness in masses about 181 helpline number, he instructed that the names of people giving information about drugs should be kept confidential and they be rewarded with Rs. 10000 cash prize. He said that war against drugs cannot be won without the cooperation of people.
The Deputy Chief Minister instructed the SSPs to form 5 member police-public co-operation committees at village and city level to create awareness and curb the activities of anti-social elements. He also gave the target of covering 3000 villages of the state in 6 months for this purpose. He also laid stress on organizing of conducting awareness camps in educational institutions to keep youth away from drugs and anti-social forces.
Coming to other aspects, S. Badal said that the officials who are stationed at one place for a very long time should be immediately transferred and also that ‘Black Sheeps’ in the police department be identified and strongly proceeded against. Strongly advocating the need for establishing ‘Nakas’ during night, he gave orders regarding putting this into practice besides instructing that the vehicles used for surveillance at night must be equipped with GPS facility. He also emphasized deploying CCTV cameras at the sensitive and vulnerable spots in the cities in order to curb crime.
During the meeting, DGP, Punjab, Mr. Suresh Arora apprised the Deputy Chief Minister that 34000 points have been identified throughout the state to deploy CCTV cameras and 5000 cameras have even been made operational with the help of field officers. Regarding the Ludhiana Safe City Project, he said that 139 high resolution cameras would be deployed under the project. On the occasion, Principal Secretary to Deputy CM P.S. Aujla, Special Principal Secretary to Deputy CM Manvesh Singh Sidhu, SSPs of all the districts and top brass of the state police was also present,
