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Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma on Friday issued directions to the police force to take strong action against drug dealers within the state and asked all stakeholders to collaborate with a focus on achieving tangible results in the fight against the drug menace.
Presiding over the meeting of the state-level committee of the Narco Coordination Center Mechanism here today, Anurag Verma said, "As many drug-related cases are caught by the police, by working on their links and identifying the drug traffickers involved, they should be arrested. These cases will be reviewed every month in the state-level meeting." "The process of seizing the properties of the drug lords should be expedited. The Punjab Police should be empowered by conducting a special session at the Punjab Police Academy Phillaur to speed up the prosecution of these cases and train them on the process of seizure of assets," he added. The Chief Secretary instructed the police department to speed up the trial process of cases involving commercial quantities of drugs and simultaneously to initiate the process of setting up special courts for the same. During the meeting, he also ordered the Health Department to crack down on chemists selling drugs and said that the Health Department should check them continuously and if any chemist is caught selling drugs, his license should be suspended. "Apart from this, the health department should make an app and bring everyone on one platform so that stock can be checked online," he said adding that the health and police department should speed up the work of investigating the causes of death and punishing the culprits by going to the decision of individual cases. The Chief Secretary also asked the Health department to form a committee of experts to make a list of which drugs can be effective in saving the lives of patients suffering from overdose. "To create awareness among students about the ill effects of drugs, special programmes should be organized," a top administrative official said. (ANI)
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