CHANDIGARH, March 21:
Continuing the war against drugs “Yudh Nashian Virudh” waged on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann to eradicate drug menace from state consecutively for the 21st day, Punjab Police on Friday conducted raids at 493 locations leading to the arrest of 63 drug smugglers after registration of 47 first information reports (FIRs) across the state. With this, the number of total drug smugglers arrested has reached to 2527 in just 21 days.
Police teams have also recovered 573 grams heroin, 10 kg opium, 1470 intoxicant tablets/pills/injections and Rs 4750 drug money from the possession of arrested drug smugglers.
The operation was conducted on the directions of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav simultaneously in all 28 Police districts of the state.
Notably, CM Bhagwant Singh Mann has asked the Commissioners of Police, Deputy Commissioners and Senior Superintendent of Police to make Punjab drug free state. The Punjab government has also constituted a 5-member Cabinet Sub Committee led by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema to monitor the war against drugs.
Divulging details, Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla informed that over 200 Police teams, comprising over 1300 police personnel, under the supervision of 96 gazetted officers have conducted raids across the state and checked as many as 530 suspicious persons during the day long operation
He said that Punjab Police has devised a comprehensive strategy and such operations will be continued till the scourge of drugs eradicated from the state.
The Special DGP said that with the state government has enforced a three-pronged strategy— Enforcement, Deaddiction and Prevention (EDP)— to eradicate drugs from the state, the Punjab Police as part of ‘De-addiction’ has convinced two persons to undergo de-addiction and rehabilitation treatment, while, organised 125 awareness events across the state as part of Prevention.
Meanwhile, Police teams have also conducted checking at as many as 170 pharmaceutical shops in six districts including Commissionerate Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Batala, Pathankot, Amritsar Rural and Tarn Taran to ensure that they are not selling intoxicant tablets or any other habit-forming drugs, and are adhering to the prescribed norms and regulations regarding the sale of medicines.
