Punjab recommends death penalty for drug smuggling and peddling following public pressure

The Punjab government on Monday decided to recommend to the Centre to punish drug peddlers and smugglers with death penalty. The decision to make the recommendation to the Centre was taken by in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. “Since drug peddling is destroying entire generations, it deserves exemplary punishment. I stand by my commitment for a drug-free Punjab,” he wrote in a tweet.

My govt has decided to recommend the death penalty for drug peddling/smuggling. The recommendation is being forwarded to the Union government. Since drug peddling is destroying entire generations, it deserves exemplary punishment. I stand by my commitment for a drug free Punjab. pic.twitter.com/dXZTsDwVpf

— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) July 2, 2018

Punjab minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa told a press briefing after Monday’s Cabinet meeting that harsher measures have been suggested by the state government to deal with the drug problem. The Cabinet has also decided to constitute a sub-committee to review the state’s rehabilitation programme, reported The Tribune.   _"_The Cabinet also decided to constitute a special Working Group under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary (Home) NS Kalsi to review and monitor, on a day-to-day basis, the action being taken to check and control drug abuse. The special Working Group constituted to review and update the Government strategy against drugs will have  Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Satish Chandra, DGP (Law & Order) Ishwar Singh, Director General of Police (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta and Additional Director General of Police (STF) HS Sidhu as members," said a press statement on the issue. The decision comes after public pressure over the drug menace in the state. Observing a ‘Black Week’ (1-7 July), people had staged protests across the state against the government’s inaction. This apolitical protest movement ‘Chittey De Virodh Vich Kaala Hafta’, with the tagline, Maro Jaan Virodh Karo (either die or speak against drugs), was started after a spate of drug-related deaths were reported from across the state in June, reported The Indian Express. A call to observe the first week of July as ‘Black Week’ had been given by several NGOs and prominent personalities of the state to wake up the government. The opposition parties including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have also been criticising the 15-month old Singh government for allegedly failing to contain the drug menace in the state despite promising to wipe it out in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly polls. With inputs from PTI