Pilot Opens Punjab Yatra in Mansa, Blames Centre for Cross-Border Drugsਪਾਇਲਟ ਨੇ ਮਾਨਸਾ ਤੋਂ ਯਾਤਰਾ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਕੀਤੀ, ਸਰਹੱਦ ਪਾਰ ਨਸ਼ਿਆਂ ਲਈ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਨੂੰ ਦੋਸ਼ੀ ਠਹਿਰਾਇਆ

Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot opened his five-day Punjab yatra on Friday, October 16, with a stop in Mansa and a press interaction in Chandigarh, accusing the BJP-led central government of failing to stop drugs being smuggled across the border from Pakistan. The tour, announced a day earlier, will take Pilot to the homes of families who lost relatives to gang violence across 11 districts.

What did Pilot say in Chandigarh?

Pilot told reporters that the BJP has run the central government for 12 years and asked what its Defence and Home ministries had done to stop drone-based drug smuggling from Pakistan. He said the BJP raises Punjab's drug problem now with an eye on the coming Assembly polls, and that voters will question the party in return. He also recalled that the BJP governed Punjab in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal in the past, so it shares responsibility for those years too.

On law and order, Pilot said gangsters are firing at people in broad daylight and that, in his assessment, the situation is worse than at the peak of militancy. That is his political characterisation, offered as the Congress case against the AAP government, and it is reported here as his claim. He said his aim is to reach every home where someone has been shot, share the family's grief, and check what has happened in each investigation since.

What happened in Mansa?

In Mansa, one of the districts worst hit by chitta, Pilot met families who have lost sons and daughters to drugs. In a message posted from the district, he said the people of Mansa are fighting to save their young from chitta, that the pain of bereaved families cannot be silenced, and that the Congress will press for justice for them, accountability for the guilty, and a safer future for Punjab's youth.

Mansa is also where anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota was shot dead this month, a killing that has driven a statewide argument over drugs and policing. Pilot referred to that atmosphere of violence, saying people are being shot in public and on video while the administration looks helpless.

What is the yatra meant to do?

The Congress says the five-day tour, running to October 20, covers Moga, Bathinda, Mansa, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar. In each district Pilot is to visit bereaved families, hear how police and the government responded in their case, and carry their demand for justice to the public, the state government and, where needed, the courts. New Punjab Congress president Pargat Singh took office on October 11, and the yatra is the party's first big ground exercise under the new team.

Which districts does Sachin Pilot's Punjab yatra cover?

Eleven districts: Moga, Bathinda, Mansa, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar, between October 16 and 20.

Who is Sachin Pilot in the Congress setup for Punjab?

He is an AICC general secretary and the party's in-charge for Punjab, the senior Congress figure responsible for the state unit's political and organisational work.