Mann forms STF to launch crackdown on drug peddlers

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday directed police to launch a major crackdown on those selling drugs and also tightening the noose around any political functionary interfering with his anti-drug campaign.

Chairing a high-level meeting of the Special Task Force (STF) with senior police officers of all districts through video conferencing here at his official residence, CM Mann unequivocally said that neither political persons nor officers would be spared at any cost, if found conniving with the drug mafia.

He asked the police officers to work freely without any political pressure with a sharpened focus to make Punjab a drug-free state.

The chief minister said: “To my mind, some police officers might have been working earlier under certain compulsions but all the officers are not alike.

However, few drug peddlers might be getting political patronage in past but now this shall not happen and all of you should work fearlessly in a direction to wipe out the slur of drugs from the state.”

Emphasising the need to break the supply chain of drugs, Mann asked the police officers to arrest those who are actually selling drugs and not the drug addicts as they have already become victims of the drug mafia.

He said that with this initiative, ultimately the backbone of the supply chain would be broken and Punjab would soon become a drug-free state, adding this could not be accomplished without the wholehearted support of the police force.

Focusing his government’s priority on the rehabilitation of drug addicts after crackdown on drug smugglers, Mann underscored the need to bring those back in the mainstream, who had gone astray in the past. The chief minister further said that his government would strive hard to run drug de-addiction centres across the state while ensuring there is no shortage of medicines besides running counselling programmes so that the youth after treatment should not again fell prey to drugs.

Appreciating the Punjab police for valiantly combating the black phase of terrorism across the state, Mann hoped that it would now set an example by completely vanishing the drug terror, which has ruined the lives of the youth in the state.

He asked the police officers to be vigilant while tackling the drug menace with heavy hand and should be aware who, where and what kind of drugs were being sold within their jurisdiction.