Punjab seeks death penalty for drug peddlers, smugglers

Chandigarh, July 3: Reiterating its zero tolerance to drugs, the Punjab government on Monday decided to recommend to the Centre death penalty for drug peddlers and smugglers, to act as a deterrent to the heinous crime, which was destroying the lives of youth in Punjab and many other places.

 

Notably, the decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet, which resolved to send a formal recommendation soon to the Union Government to this effect, according to an official spokesperson.

An official spokesperson said, “The Cabinet also decided to constitute a special Working Group under the chairmanship of ACS (Home) NS Kalsi to review and monitor, on a day-to-day basis, the action being taken to check and control drug abuse. The special Working Group constituted to review and update the Government strategy against drugs will have ACS (Health) Satish Chandra, DGP (Intelligence) Dinkar Gupta, ADGP (Law & Order) Ishwar Singh and ADGP (STF) HS Sidhu as members.”

Importantly, the total number of drug peddlers arrested and jailed since CM Captain Amarinder Singh-led government took over in Punjab in March 2017 was 18800. Since 2014, till June 2018, the total number of arrests stood at 56136 with a total of 48425 cases registered under the NDPS Act.