Will clean Punjab of drugs, those responsible for menace would be brought to book: Amarinder Singh

Pointing out that ‘chitta’ (drugs) has killed thousands of young people in Punjab, PCC chief Amarinder Singh on Monday asserted that all those responsible for the menace would be brought to book, even if they are the Badals or Majithia.

Yesterday, Singh had said that if elected to power, he would not shy away from “hanging” those guilty of sacrilege and drug mafia even if it is the “Badals themselves”, evoking a sharp reaction from the ruling party which said the Punjab Congress chief had gone “berserk”.

At a public rally here today, he said he had to keep his date with the region, from where his “sister” Rajinder Kaur Bhattal is contesting.

Without mincing words he asked the gathering, “babe (chief minister Parkash Singh Badal) nu kuttan, ya na kuttan?” (should I or shouldn’t I thrash Baba?).

He said now that he had the permission of the gathering, he would have to beat Badal square and hard in Lambi seat, which he had chosen as his ‘karambhoomi’.

Citing Maqboolpura in Amritsar as an example of the devastation wreaked by drugs, leaving only widows and children in the entire village, he said that all those responsible for the menace would be brought to book.

They will all be dealt within four weeks of the next Congress government taking over the state.

Describing the Akali Dal as a “mafia party”, he promised to take away all the buses currently under Badals’ control and give them away to the unemployed youth of the state.

Referring to the incidents of religious sacrilege in the state, he promised to take appropriate action against anyone found guilty, even if it is Badals.

He said the BJP-SAD government had failed to do anything for the farmers and his party was committed to waive off their loans and rescue them from the devastation.

He said that the Congress manifesto, which had the seal of approval of former Prime Minister and “world-renowned economist” Manmohan Singh, had addressed the problem of the farmers in much detail.

He expressed concern over the alleged lawlessness in the state, observing that the DGP himself had admitted to 52 armed gangs being on the loose.