Tarn Taran, May 17: Observing that inadequate education and health services are factors leading to unrest among youth, driving them towards drug addiction and other vices, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday said both sectors were on top of his agenda.
After launching the second phase of the Congress government’s drug abuse prevention officers’ (DAPO) programme here, he announced a 5 per cent cut in the budget allocated to other departments to raise additional revenue for education and health.
Citing figures, he claimed that there had been a whopping 126 per cent increase in the number of youth reporting for drug treatment at the OPDs, which testified the success of government’s initiative to wipe out the menace from the state.
As against 1.82 lakh youngsters who reported at OPDs in 2016, the number had gone up to 4.12 lakh in 2017. Similarly, as many as 5,107 youths were being treated at government rehabilitation centres and another 17,667 in private hospitals.
Reiterating his government’s zero tolerance towards drugs, the CM said anyone found involved in spreading the menace would not be spared. “While the STF was going all out to eliminate the scourge, it was the moral responsibility of every member of society to fight it,” he said.
Source Tribune India
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