CHANDIGARH: The chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana met on Friday to discuss greater coordination in the battle against drugs. The two also agreed to hold an inter-state meeting of all the northern states on July 25.
It was decided that the scheduled meeting will be hosted by Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh.
The chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Delhi, as well as the Governor Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi Lieutenant Governor and Chandigarh administrator, are expected to join the second inter-state meeting on drugs.
The first meeting was held in April last year and the northern states had then decided to set up a centralised secretariat at Panchkula in Haryana. A nodal officer from each state was deputed to here for intelligence and information sharing.
The states had also agreed on a more proactive campaign to fight drugs on a joint platform, with faster sharing of information on drug trends, cases registered and persons identified or arrested.
Punjab government is committed to the cause of total elimination of drugs which were smuggled into the state not just from Pakistan but also from within the country, CM Amarinder Singh said after his meeting with his Haryana counterpart.
He reiterated his government’s zero-tolerance policy against drugs.
Earlier, the Haryana Chief Minister welcomed Amarinder and presented to him a copy of the Bhagvad Geeta and a memento.