Modi's talk on drugs should be action, not mere wish-list: Amarinder

Chandigarh, Dec 14: Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Amarinder Singh Sunday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Mann ki Baat" on drugs "should have been more action oriented than just a wish-list".

"Prime minister must set the agenda and tell the nation what he plans to do and not just what should be done," Amarinder said in a statement following Modi's address to the nation on radio Sunday.

Welcoming the prime minister's concern about the scourge of drugs the country is confronted with, the former Punjab chief minister said: "Who can feel the pain more than us in Punjab where an entire generation has been threatened."

Punjab faces an acute problem of drug addiction with reports and surveys in recent years suggesting that nearly 70 percent of its population was affected by drugs.

"It is good that the issue has attracted the attention of the prime minister and I hope that the 'Mann ki Baat' will not end up in the heart only but will be taken to its logical conclusion," Amarinder remarked.

He noted that he had been insisting on a National Drug Policy as different states have different laws regarding the drugs, which makes the peddling easy.

"In a state like Madhya Pradesh, opium is allowed to be grown, while in Rajasthan, it is allowed to be traded and a neighbouring state like Punjab becomes a fertile market," he pointed out.

"We have seen sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and their entire families getting devastated. In Amritsar, the area I represent in parliament, there is a village of widows with 90 percent of women losing their husbands to drugs," Amarinder pointed out.

He said that there were multiple aspects to the supply and availability of drugs.

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"There were those coming from Pakistan and Afghanistan, those coming from the states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and also produced locally for a cheap price," he said.

"Narco-terrorism is only one of the aspects of the problem that the prime minister touched. The dimensions of this menace are threateningly more dangerous and devastating than even terrorism. While terrorists indulge in hit and run, the drugs ruin an entire generation constantly and continuously," he added.