Punjab CM calls for collective efforts to fight drugs

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Wednesday sought support and assistance from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to fight the drug menace in the state.

While delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of a three-day regional workshop on 'Combating Illicit Trafficking of Afghan Opiates: Developing a Comprehensive Approach' organised here by the UNODC.

He said the drug menace was 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, he said.

Expressing the confidence that his government would succeed in destroying the drugs business, he called for team work to battle the problem, and said the UNODC could play a pivotal role in this.

While the Special Task Force and other agencies had been successful in catching mid-level peddlers, the big suppliers need to be apprehended too, he said, adding "we owe this to our future generations."