By IANS,
Chandigarh : Punjab accounts for 60 percent – roughly Rs.900 crore – of the total drug seizures worth Rs 1,500 crore in the country in the last six months, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said Saturday.
Badal, who is also the state’s home minister, told officers of the Punjab Police to take the war against drugs to a decisive phase.
Badal said that the Punjab Police was waging a war against narcotic peddlers and smugglers and the recoveries made in recent months had yielded good results.
He said: “The Punjab police, during last six months, have made record recoveries under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act, clearly indicates that smugglers who were using Punjab as a transit route are under great pressure. The fact, that out of total Rs.1,500 crore recoveries under NDPS Act in the country, 60 percent recoveries were from Punjab.”
He added that the seizures clearly reflected the size of the drugs problem Punjab is facing on this front.
The special narcotics cell of the Punjab Police Thursday seized heroin worth Rs.125 crore in the international market in Amritsar.
Punjab has emerged as a major transit and delivery point for drugs, especially those coming from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“The drug peddlers are bent upon ruining the lives of our youth, the task of the police in making recoveries in this area is even more,” he added.
Badal had recently introduced a monthly appraisal of all district police chiefs and senior field police officers, leading to busting of crime, drugs and terrorist capsules across Punjab.