The drug menace is a major issue as the election to the 117-member Punjab Assembly nears. Political parties promised to end addiction for years, but the problem remains. Both Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party failed to stop it after taking power. Now, many households still struggle with this crisis.
As the election to the 117-member Punjab Assembly closes in, the drug menace appears to be becoming one big issue that can mobilise emotion and votes simultaneously, since addiction has touched a significant number of households in Punjab
Story so far: The drug menace has remained a central political and social issue in Punjab for years and despite tall promises to eradicate it, the successive governments have failed to successfully address the problem.
In the past decade, before the 2017 Assembly elections, the then Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh had, under oath of 'Gutka Sahib' (a small book with sacred verses from Guru Granth Sahib), promised the people of Punjab to stamp out the menace of drugs within four weeks of assuming power. The Congress ruled from 2017 to 2022, yet the drug problem remained. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made a similar promise in 2022, saying it would end the drug menace within three to four months of after forming the government. Four and a half years later, the problem continues to plague the State.