Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal said here on Wednesday that the sharp increase in the drug menace in Punjab was due to the shelter being provided to the drug mafia by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators.

Addressing a party rally in Ferozepur, the Akali leader alleged that AAP legislators were extending protection to the drug traffickers. He said the hands of the police had been tied by the AAP legislators because they were receiving monthlies from the mafia kingpins.

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“This is why no effort is being made to arrest the kingpins and only lowly peddlers are targeted,” Badal said, pointing out that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized drugs from 66 liquor vends of Ludhiana after the chief minister refused to take action on information provided by the Governor on the sale of drugs from the vends.

“The vends were, however, reopened within a month’s time which points to the control the drug mafia has over the AAP Government,” the SAD leader added.

Badal held the AAP Government squarely responsible for turning large parts of this region into a lake in July and is now running away from its responsibility to compensate farmers for the destruction caused to their paddy crop.

He said the devastation caused in this region was not man-made as AAP’s Member of Parliament got all 38 gates of the Harike barrage opened in one go despite opposition from the Irrigation Department engineers.

Badal said that even as the paddy crop in the area had been destroyed farmers were in no position to sow the forthcoming wheat crop because either gullies had been made in fields or tonnes of sand had been deposited in them. “With farmers not being allowed to clear the fields of the sand by the State government, another crisis is in the offing,” he added.

Accusing Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of not holding any flood protection meeting prior to the monsoons, he said former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal used to not only hold such meetings but also conduct extensive flood protection works including cleaning of drains. “This was not done by the AAP Government which resulted in extensive damage not only to standing crops but to residential houses also”, he added.