Chandigarh,
12 July, 2019
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his Punjab counterpart Captain Amarinder Singh today resolved to take stringent measures to eliminate the drugs problem among youth and to free them from its clutches to give a bright future.
Punjab CM Capt Amarinder Singh called on Khattar here with an offer to host the next meeting of Chief Minister’s of Northern States to make the region free from drug menace.
According to an official spokesperson, the meeting between Khattar and his Punjab Counterpart lasted about half-an-hour in a cordial atmosphere.
The spokesperson informed that Chief Minister Khattar agreed to attend the next meeting to be organized by Punjab here on July 25 for evolving an effective mechanism to deal with this long standing problem.
It may be recalled that on the initiative of CM Khattar, a regional conference of the Chief Ministers and Senior Officers of six states was organised here on the issue of “Drug menace, challenges and strategies” in the month of August 2018.
Apart from Khattar, the meeting was also attended by Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat, Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh while their Himachal Pradesh counterpart Jairam Thakur had joined them through video conferencing. Senior officials representing Rajasthan, Delhi and Chandigarh also participated.
During that meeting, the States and the Union Territory of Chandigarh had agreed to join hands to jointly tackle the drug menace in the country’s northern region. It was also agreed that there was a need for more proactive and quick information exchange on drug trends, cases registered and persons named, wanted or arrested. Apart from this, decision was also taken to set up a centralised secretariat at Panchkula where nodal officers from each state would be deputed for sharing intelligence and information.