Punjab Special Task Force (STF) IG Promod Ban today informed that with an aim to make students of schools and colleges aware about the ill effects of drugs, the STF would be starting ‘buddy project’ very soon. He said that this project would cover all government and private schools and colleges of the state.While holding a review meeting of SDM’s and Police Officers from five districts about the DAPO programme, Mr Ban said that the “Buddy Project” would involve principals, teachers, students as well as their parents. He said that this project is based on mutual interest and positive construction for a healthy and productive school/college environment. Mr Promod Ban further stated that the buddy project will be led by class teachers and will be supervised by the principals and district education officers (DEOs).Mr Ban was also accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Ludhiana Mr Pardeep Kumar Agrawal, ADC Mr Iqbal Singh Sandhu, besides other senior officers.Teachers will be trained by a special team constituted by the state government, consisting of STF, psychology department officials, Punjabi University (Patiala) members and education department officials.While addressing the officers from five districts namely Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and SBS Nagar, Mr Ban said that Punjab Government is committed to wipe out the menace of drug abuse and multi-pronged strategy has been adopted to accomplish this task.
Already a Special Task Force (Anti-drug) has been constituted, which is stringently enforcing the law and nabbing the violators, and on the other hand the Government is providing effective de-addiction and rehabilitation services for people affected to drug abuse.He added that the Punjab government is proactively working towards forming strategies to prevent the youngsters falling in trap of drug abuse. He asserted that this Buddy Project has been evolved since it was felt that there was a need to educate, aware and involve the youth effectively in the prevention of drug-abuse campaign. He stressed that drug abuse is mainly a social issue and therefore required joint efforts by different sections of the society.During today’s review meeting, the SDM’s of the five districts gave power point presentations on the works being carried in their respective jurisdictions under DAPO programme. All of them asserted that DAPO programme is getting successful with each passing day as people from all walks of life are supporting it. Senior Police officers from the five districts were also present during the review meeting.