Drug menace: Badal to convene meeting of all departments soon

Without naming Congress, he said "it is not appropriate for a political party to politicise the sensitive issue of the problem of drugs among the youth in the state."

The need of the hour was to find out how the drugs were reaching Punjab and what was the reason behind youths getting addicted to these, Badal told reporters here.

He, however, said there had been a free flow of drugs from Pakistan in Punjab.

The Chief Minister demanded a ban on open sale of poppy husk in Rajasthan.

Recently at a function at the Punjab University here, Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi had said seven out of ten youths in Punjab were drug addicts sparking a controversy.

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh had also asked Badal and his Deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal to take the problem of drug addiction among the youth in the state seriously.

Merely saying that there was influx of drugs into the state from Pakistan and Afghanistan was a classic case of passing the buck, Amarinder had said.