Reiterating the commitment of the State Government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann for the complete elimination of drugs, Chief Secretary Anurag Verma asked all the stakeholders to work in a result-oriented manner for the elimination of drug menace. While presiding over the meeting of the state level committee of the Narco Coordination Center Mechanism here today, Mr. Verma said that as many drug-related cases are caught by the police, by working on their links and identifying the drug traffickers involved, they should be arrested.
He said that these cases will be reviewed every month in the state level meeting. He said that following the instructions of the Chief Minister to adopt a zero tolerance policy in this regard, the process of seizing the properties of the drug lords should be expedited.
The Punjab Police should be empowered by conducting a special session at the Punjab Police Academy Phillaur to speed up the prosecution of these cases and train them on the process of seizure of assets. Mr. Verma said that instructions were given to the police department to speed up the trial process of cases involving commercial quantities of drugs and simultaneously to initiate the process of setting up special courts for the same.
He also directed the police to adopt a sensitive attitude towards drug addicts who are caught with small quantities and instead of punishing them and sending them to jail, they should be sent to de-addiction centres so that they too can be given a chance to return to the mainstream.
The Chief Secretary ordered the Health Department to crack down on chemists selling drugs and said that the Health Department should check them continuously and if any chemist is caught selling drugs, his license should be suspended. Apart from this, the health department should make an app and bring everyone on one platform so that stock can be checked online.
Similarly, in the case of deaths due to drugs, he asked the health and police department to speed up the work of investigating the causes of death and punishing the culprits by going to the decision of individual cases. In this regard, review meetings should be held every month at the district level and every quarter at the state level.
The Chief Secretary also asked the Health department to form a committee of experts to make a list of which drugs can be effective in saving the lives of patients suffering from overdose. He asked the Director Forensic Science Laboratory to speed up the work so that the culprits involved in drug crimes could be punished as soon as possible.
The Chief Secretary asked the Police, Health Department along with the School Education, Sports and Social Security and Women Child Development Department to accelerate the activities of the drug free campaign. To create awareness among students about the ill effects of drugs, special programmes should be organized.
The meeting was attended by Zonal Director of Narcotics Bureau Chandigarh Amanjeet Singh, Finance Commissioner Forest and Wildlife Development Vikas Garg, Secretary Home Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Secretary School Education KK Yadav, Excise Commissioner Varun Roojam, Special DGP STF Kuldeep Singh, Director Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Police Academy Phillaur Anita Punj, ADGP STF RK Jaiswal, Special Secretary Home Varinder Kumar Sharma, Special Secretary Social Security Women and Child Development Vimmi Bhullar and representatives of the BSF and Health department.