Chandigarh, September 10
SAD president Sukhbir Badal on Monday sought an apology from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly branding Punjabis as drug addicts.

In a series of tweets, Sukhbir said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s lie on the issue of drug addiction in Punjab has been nailed in the wake of a recent survey by PGIMER, Chandigarh.

“The Congress vice-president, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal owe an apology to Punjabis for maligning them and branding them as drug addicts,” Sukhbir said.Earlier, AIIMS had put drug addiction at 0.8 per cent in Punjab. A survey on police recruits put it at 1.27 per cent, while negligent number of addicts was found in Army recruitment drives, he added.

Taking on the Congress vice-president, Sukhbir said Rahul Gandhi had claimed in 2012 that 70 per cent of Punjab youths were drug addicts. During the 2017 election campaign, Rahul insisted that he was speaking the truth, Sukhbir said while demanding an apology from the three.

The findings of a study by the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research and the Punjab Government has revealed that in Punjab, alcohol and tobacco are the most common intoxicants and not the infamous ‘chitta’ (heroin), as is the popular perception.