Drug de-addiction in Punjab is a farce- RTI Activist Kuldeep Singh Khaira

Ludhiana, July 14, 2013: Kuldeep Singh Khaira, RTI Activist associated to Vigilant Citizen’s Forum- an NGO, has said the so called drug de-addiction campaign by Punjab Government is a farce and an effort to bluff people.

Speaking to City Air News, he said this is what indicated by the information obtained under the RTI Act from the Excise & Taxation Department, Ludhiana.

This information reveals that number of liquor vends in the Ludhiana district is sharply increasing year-on-year (y-o-y). The Excise department has divided Ludhiana Division into three districts i.e. Ludhiana-I, Ludhiana-II and Ludhiana –III, besides Fatehgarh Sahib. The information for the period of seven financial years from 2007-08 to 2013-14 shows that the state government has absolutely no intention to discourage consumption of liquor here. If the number of liquor vends in Ludhiana District was 878 during the financial year 2007-08, it is 1374 in the current financial year 2013-14 i.e. there is increase of 496 vends.

He told that the situation in other districts of the state might not be very different. This shows that the government is encouraging more and more consumption of liquor due to its hunger of revenue. He said the state government seems to be least concerned about deleterious effects of liquor on health and economy of people.

The year-wise break up of liquor vends in each district is as below: