Chandigarh: Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring has said that the state and Centre had “completely failed” to curb the drug menace after the overdose death of Aaksh Saini, a graduate and football player, in Amritsar. He said the situation in Punjab was “very alarming” and that “Punjab is dying”.Reacting to the youth’s death, Warring said the claims of the AAP govt’s anti-drug campaign ‘Yudh Nashya Virudh’ stood exposed and challenged the state govt.He also referred to the march taken out by Punjab governor Gulab Chand Kataria and his claims, saying that the campaign of ‘Yudh Nashya Virudh’ was successful and sought him to produce concrete figures proving its success.“Mere FIRs will not finish drugs. We must accept there is not any success in the fight against drugs. The focus should be on treating addicts through a comprehensive de-addiction process,” he said.Pointing out that drugs continue to enter Punjab through drones from across the border, Warring said both the Punjab govt and the BJP-led Centre failed to stop the inflow.Targeting the AAP govt, he termed it a “deaf and dumb” dispensation and accused it of spending large sums on ‘yatras’ and publicity while neglecting de-addiction programmes.“If the money spent on yatras was used for de-addiction and rehabilitation, the results would have been different,” he said, adding that he had told governor Kataria that the campaign yielded “not a penny’s worth” of benefit.Warring also alleged that the family of the deceased youth was pressured not to go for a post-mortem examination and that there was haste for his cremation. He claimed that media houses were being pressured not to run news related to overdose deaths.Referring to the victim’s father, a policeman, Warring said it was tragic that a helpless father sat beside his son’s body, saying in desperation that, to save children, people should leave Punjab.Stating that drugs did not stop even in villages, he said the anti-drug drive did not succeed. He said tackling drug abuse was not an overnight job, but required sustained and serious efforts, with emphasis on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation rather than “false assurances”.
