Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today directed all Police Commissioners and SSPs to launch a concerted drive against drug peddlers and show concrete results within a month.
Reviewing the law and order situation in the state at a meeting here, he directed the police officers to strike at the root of the drug trade and not just be content with arresting drug peddlers.
"You must investigate forward and backward linkages," the Deputy Chief Minister said adding there must be "zero tolerance" towards drugs.
He said though there was a quantum increase in the recovery of narcotics, this should not make the force complacent as peddlers were still trying to induce youth to take to drugs.
Asking SSPs to conduct micro analysis of their own districts to check the flow of drugs, sale and its resale, Badal said all drug peddlers would have to be dealt with an iron hand.
Agreeing with the suggestion of DGP Sumedh Singh Saini regarding weeding out of all those police personnel found colluding with drug peddlers, Badal said weeding out of "rotten eggs" had to begin from the top.
Besides intelligence and other sources, he was regularly getting feedback from many formal and informal channels regarding the problem of drug addiction in the state and any SSP not performing in his area would have to lose the command of the district, Badal said.
The DGP informed the Deputy CM that the Punjab Police had already stepped up its drive against drug addiction and more than 6300 drug peddlers and drug lords had been arrested since April one, 2013.
