Punjab CM seeks UN aid to combat drug problem

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought the continued support and assistance of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC) in fighting the drug problem, which he described as a strategic conspiracy unleashed from across the international border. Rivulets in Punjab were being used to smuggle drugs as part of a strategic agenda that went beyond commercial reasons, said the Chief Minister, while delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of a 3- day Regional Workshop on ‘ Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates: Developing a Comprehensive Approach’, organised here by UNODC and steered by UNODC Regional Office South Asia ( ROSA) Sergey Kapinos. Expressing the confidence that his government would succeed in destroying the drugs business, Captain Amarinder Singh called for team work to battle the menace, and said UNODC could play a pivotal role in this. He said UNODC could help the state by identifying the big sharks who had a stake in the drug business. While the STF and other agencies had been successfully in catching midlevel peddlers, the big suppliers need to be apprehended too, he said, adding that “we owe this to our future generations.” The chief minister referred to the initiative taken by him to write to the chief ministers of the neighbouring states, which had led to the Haryana CM convening a meeting that had decided to set up a joint control room in Panchkula.