Chandigarh: With Union home minister Amit Shah visiting Punjab to meet the family members of those who died in incidents linked to the drug menace in Punjab, AAP leader and cabinet minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led central government. He questioned their failure to act against pharmaceutical drug manufacturers operating in BJP and Congress-ruled states despite repeated appeals from Punjab.
Finance minister Harpal Cheema on Tuesday said the Punjab government was taking stringent action against drug traffickers, but the Centre continued to ignore the sources supplying synthetic and pharmaceutical drugs to the state. (HT file photo)
Addressing a press conference, Cheema claimed that the Punjab government was taking stringent action against drug traffickers, but the Centre continued to ignore the sources supplying synthetic and pharmaceutical drugs to the state. He asserted that the Bhagwant Mann government would pursue the fight against drugs with full force and would not allow political considerations or administrative obstacles to weaken its resolve. “The main sources of synthetic and pharmaceutical drugs flooding Punjab are in states governed by the BJP and Congress, yet the central government has failed to take decisive action against those manufacturing and supplying these substances. Punjab is fighting this menace on the ground, but the Centre is turning a blind eye to a serious threat to the lives of our youth,” he said at a press conference in Chandigarh.
Cheema said no manufacturing unit of prescription medicines being misused as intoxicants was located in Punjab. He claimed that these factories were operating in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat and the central government must explain why it had failed to act against the sources of this supply chain. “Medicines such as Pregabalin, Gaba, Clomine, Tramadol, Zopiclone, Flu Practsol and Carisoprodols are being misused as intoxicants in Punjab, even though these medicines can only be obtained with a doctor’s prescription. The state government has repeatedly sought stronger legal provisions to stop this misuse, but the Centre has failed to provide any concrete response,” he said.
The cabinet minister said the Punjab health department sent letters to the central government on October 31, 2025, and September 21, 2026, seeking the inclusion of these medicines in the schedule of the NDPS Act. “Despite repeated representations, the government has not taken any concrete steps. Why is the Centre unwilling to close this legal gap when the lives of our youth are at stake?” he asked. He said that as excise and taxation minister, he had also written two letters to the central government seeking stringent legislation to prevent the misuse of methyl alcohol, which is meant exclusively for industrial purposes.
He accused the BJP of attempting to turn Punjab into a battleground for its political interests instead of cooperating with the state to dismantle drug networks. “The people of Punjab need decisive action, stronger laws and accountability from the Centre, not political rhetoric. The Punjab Government will continue its uncompromising campaign against drugs,” he added.
Ahead of Shah’s visit, AAP Punjab chief and cabinet minister Aman Arora also demanded answers from the home minister about the Centre’s “failure to stop drug smuggling” across Punjab’s international border, heroin consignments allegedly reaching Gujarat’s Mundra Port and BJP’s silence on ‘chitta’ and gangster culture during the 2007-17 Akali Dal-BJP government. He said the Centre and the BJP must answer for their own record instead of holding Punjab alone accountable.
