Chandigarh, Aug 11 (IANS) In a war of “claims and counterclaims” between the Punjab government and Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh over the alarming rise in drug addiction in the state, the latter on Tuesday posted more videos and pictures on his social media account to justify his claims.
In one of the videos posted on X, Harbhajan Singh posed questions to the government and asked it to work on how to make the state drug-free. “Is this also a picture of Rajasthan? The discussion is about Punjab’s drug problem. This issue won’t be hidden by your paid trolls. Work will have to be done on this,” he questioned.
“Running away from responsibilities won’t yield a solution. The matter isn’t about targeting any specific individual. For anyone in Punjab and across the entire country who consumes narcotic substances, whatever efforts are made to free them from addiction should be carried out. Without pulling each other’s legs, the Punjab government should work on how to make Punjab drug-free.”
The BJP MP retweeted a post that reads, “These videos are from different cities across Punjab and show incidents from the past 48 hours, where young people can be seen under the influence of drugs. “Well, @harbhajan_singh Bhajji posted a video from Rajasthan. But will the Punjab government answer this? These videos are from Punjab itself. This is the only option to upload four videos. If the Aam Aadmi Party needs more videos, I can upload them too,” wrote Parmeet Bidowali, a Punjabi journalist.
Responding to Harbhajan Singh’s tweet, the Punjab BJP wrote on X, “The scourge of drugs in Punjab is increasing day by day; videos of youth swaying under the influence of drugs keep coming to the fore every other day. These videos are of Punjab’s own youth; does the Punjab Police have any answer regarding this? I hope you will give a response on this too.”
A day earlier, the former cricketer wrote, “The evil eye has struck, my friend, on our Punjab… The governments have ruined Punjab and its Punjabi youth. It makes me want to cry seeing all this. Forgive my Punjab… Excuse Punjab. Where have they brought Punjab to?… There’s still time —save my Punjab. Save Punjab’s youth.”
Last week, state BJP chief Kewal Singh Dhillon, quoting the state Assembly Committee report on the alarming drug situation, said that more than 65 per cent of the state youth are in the grip of drugs and it is a serious warning for the future. He said the Committee’s report has exposed the reality behind the government’s claims of a “drug-free Punjab” and its “war against drugs” campaign.
According to the report, young people in the 18-35 age group are the worst affected by drug abuse. “Even more alarming is the fact that the consumption of de-addiction medicines such as Buprenorphine has increased by 57 per cent over the past four years, while there is a severe shortage of beds for treatment in civil hospitals,” he said.
Dhillon said these figures clearly prove that the government has neither been able to curb drug abuse nor create an adequate treatment infrastructure for those suffering from addiction.
The state BJP president recalled that Arvind Kejriwal had promised to eradicate drugs within three months of his party forming the government in Punjab. However, four and a half years later, the situation has become even more alarming than before. Dhillon said if the government’s claims were true, the consumption of de-addiction tablets would not have increased from around 700 million to nearly 1.1 billion.
He questioned why, if drug abuse was indeed declining, the demand for de-addiction medicines had witnessed such a record increase.
Meanwhile, Punjab Cabinet Minister Harpal Singh Cheema has expressed disappointment over former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh for sharing a video on Monday from Rajasthan and falsely linking it to Punjab in an attempt to defame the state and its youth.
Cheema said Harbhajan Singh, who was sent to the Rajya Sabha by the AAP to represent Punjab’s interests and work for the state’s youth, was now amplifying Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) propaganda.
“Harbhajan Singh should have used his platform to encourage Punjab’s youngsters to take up sports and raise issues concerning their future, rather than sharing misleading content that tarnishes the image of Punjab,” the minister told the media here on Tuesday.
–IANS
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