Ludhiana, October 20: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said the Centre aims to free Punjab of the drug trade by 31 December 2029, and has asked the state government to hand two more murder investigations to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Shah was speaking at the Vijayadashami festival in Ludhiana on Tuesday, where he set fire to a symbolic effigy of Ravana representing ‘Chitta’, or drugs.
Meetings with bereaved families
Earlier in the day, Shah met families at three places in Punjab who had lost their sons in the fight against drugs. He said the tears, questions and pain of the relatives were enough to shake anyone.
According to the Home Minister, the Punjab government has already handed the investigation into one of the murders to the CBI. He urged it to do the same with the other two, and said that once the cases were with the CBI, the people behind the killings would be traced and jailed, however powerful they might be.
Helpline for information
Shah called the 2029 target the best tribute to the three men who lost their lives. He asked people in Punjab to report drug dealing on the Narcotics Control Bureau’s toll-free helpline and said the central government would act on the information.
He listed the removal of Articles 370 and 35A, along with action against terrorism and Naxalism, as promises the government had kept, and said the drug trade would be dealt with in the same way.
The Ramlila Committee in Ludhiana has organised the Ravana Dahan for 200 years. Shah said he had heard since childhood that Ludhiana was the place to see it.
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