Citizens Forum for Justice appeals to people to stand united against drug menace

Ludhiana, July 9, 2014: The Citizens Forum for Justice in its meeting expressed strong concern at the deteriorating law and order situation in the state particularly in context of the rising drug menace which is claiming the lives of youth every other day.
The forum decided to build public opinion against the drug menace. Expressing anguish at the police apathy in such cases the forum demanded that all such cases where drugs are a cause of death should be investigated in a highly professional manner without any pressure from any quarter. It is ironical that the recent cases of death by the drugs specifically in the case of Abhishek Banerjee, Sukhdeep Bhatia and Abhinav the approach of the police was casual. The police started its action on the presumption that these deaths occurred due to over dosing whereas it is well known that many such cases occur due to foul play. The police neither sealed the area of incident nor did they take care to preserve the evidence like finger prints. Instead of putting in sincere efforts to unearth the source of drugs and arresting drug peddlers, they are putting pressure on the families not to pursue the matter. This is running away from the responsibility of fighting against the evil in the society and smells of connivance with criminals.
Forum will fully support the families’ pursuit for a just investigation in these cases and build strong public opinion on this.  Forum appealed to citizens to join the candle march on July 13 to show their solidarity against his social evil which is destroying the precious lives of Punjabi youth and bright future of Punjab.
Forum also condemned the rise of land mafia, sand mafia and other criminal activities in the last few years.  
The meeting was attended by several concerned citizens and representatives of various organisations. They included Prof. Jagmohan Singh-General Secretary Association for Democratic Rights (AFDR), Mitter Sen Meet former District Attorney, D P Maur-General Secretary Joint Council of Trade Unions, Prof A K Maleri-state secretary AFDR, Dr Harbans Singh Grewal- social activist Dr Deepak Prashar-Secretary IMA Ludhiana, Gurnam Singh Sidhu-Social Activist and Dr Arun Mitra-Social Activist.