Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday called on saints to cooperate with the state government in curbing the spread of social evils in the society.

Addressing a meeting on water conservation and de-addiction campaign with saints at the chief minister’s official residence on his birthday, Manohar Lal Khattar said saints and great men have always worked to make people aware about social evils.

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“The people have also given full cooperation in eradicating social evils by following the ideas and teachings of saints. The campaign will definitely be successful, if saints and great men cooperate with the state government in water conservation and de-addiction campaigns,” he added.

Besides Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, Member of Parliament (MP) from Alwar, Mahant Balaknath, Swami Gyananand attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Rajesh Khullar, additional chief secretary, information, public relations, languages and culture department, said that the state government is taking strict action against the drug peddlers.

Towards this end, he said the government has constituted a special task force. Anti-narcotics cells have been formed at the district, range and state levels and more than 5,000 arrests have been made in Haryana, Khullar added.

Till January 2023, properties worth Rs 37.29 Crore of persons involved in drug offences have been attached and the process of attaching property worth Rs 15 Crore is underway.

Khullar said a mobile app ‘Saathi’ has been created to prevent illegal sale of medicines. Also, software HAWK has been developed for a database of criminal activities and an inter-state drug secretariat has been established at Panchkula.

He said the state government has prepared a special action plan for de-addiction and 52 de-addiction centers have been opened in the state. Besides, de-addiction wards have been opened in government medical colleges and de-addiction centers have been set up in civil hospitals of 13 districts.

Apart from this, toll free anti-drug helpline number 9050891508 has been started on which citizens can give information and ‘Dhakad’ programmes are also being run to save the youth from drugs.

In the meeting, advisor (irrigation) to CM,  Devender Singh said the state government is taking concrete steps towards water conservation. He also informed about the recently organized two-day ‘Water Conclave’ in which a future action plan for water conservation and water harvesting was discussed.

Meanwhile, celebrating his birthday in a special way today, the CM gave employment gift to the youths of the state by sending job offers to 896 youth through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN).

The CM also announced an amount of Rs Two Crore to the Haryana State Council for Child Welfare for the welfare of orphans.