Chandigarh: Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit on Friday hit out at chief minister Bhagwant Mann for what he held in his letter, the “breaking down of law and order situation in Punjab’’ and asked him to immediately send him a report on the action taken by him on the drugs in the state.
He also warned Mann asking him to respond to his letter failing which he (Purohit) would have no choice but to take action according to law and the Constitution.
It may be recalled that Purohit and Mann have been at loggerheads for over a year over a variety of issues including the appointment of vice-chancellors, and convening of special assembly sessions, among others, and the former has also repeatedly accused Mann of not responding to his official letters seeking information on administrative matters. Adding fuel to the fire, Mann has, on the other hand, termed the governor’s communications as “love letters’’.
Rampant availability and abuse of drugs
The governor in his latest letter said that he had received reports that there was rampant availability and abuse of drugs in Punjab and that it was common knowledge that the drugs were available in the chemist shops. Purohit held that a new trend had been observed that the drugs were now being sold in the government-controlled liquor vends and that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Chandigarh police had also recently sealed 66 liquor vends in Ludhiana which were selling drugs.
Referring to a recent report from the Parliamentary Standing Committee that had said that one in five people in Punjab was exposed or addicted to drugs, the governor said that these facts point to the breaking down of the law and order situation in the state and that now even villagers had started protesting on streets against drugs and deciding to set up their own defence committee to protect themselves from drugs.
In his four-page strongly-worded letter, Purohit wrote: "Before I take the final decision regarding sending a report to the President under Article 356 about the failure of the constitutional mechanism and take a decision about initiating criminal proceedings under Section 124 of IPC, I ask you to send me the requisite information sought for under my letters referred to above, as also in the matter of the steps taken by you concerning the problem of drugs in the state, failing which I would have no choice but to take action according to the law and the Constitution’’.
