AAP seeks special session of assembly
CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday held a protest against the drug menace in Punjab, demanding a special session of the state assembly and an all-party meeting on the issue.
The protesters, led by AAP MP Bhagwant Mann, leader of opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira and state unit co-president Balbir Singh, assembled outside MLA Hostel and started marching towards the chief minister’s official residence, but were stopped by the police. They sat on dharna and raised slogans against the Congress government, accusing CM Capt Amarinder Singh of failing to act against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders allegedly involved in drug trade.
While Khaira demanded a special session of the state assembly on the issue of drugs, Balbir Singh asked the CM to visit the families of victims.
The AAP leaders also sought a high court-monitored probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CM agreed to meet an AAP delegation on Tuesday at 2.30 pm. His officer on special duty (OSD) Sandeep Singh Sandhu met the protesting leaders at the dharna spot and received their memorandum of demands, according to a party release. The AAP leadership then called off the protest.
“The next course of action will be decided after the meeting with the chief minister,” the party release said.
Earlier, Mann, while addressing the party workers, said that had the chief minister fulfilled his pre-poll promise of ending the drug menace in four weeks, the lives of thousands of innocent youth would have been saved.
“It is disheartening to see that social organisations have been forced to start a campaign against drugs to draw the attention of the government towards such a serious issue,” he said, as the leaders and others held placards with a slogan given by the civil society groups that started the protest movement around a week ago: ‘Protest or die!’