Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has a plan up his sleeves to tackle the grave problem of the open sale of narcotic drugs and rampant addiction among the youth in Punjab. “We will be able to make a significant dent in this in four months,” he claimed during an interaction with members of the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC) here on Thursday.

Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is planning to contest next year’s Punjab assembly election. He says his party has studied the drug menace of Punjab. “There are addicts in each village and the problem is very serious,” he said.

“The drug problem in Punjab is created by a strong nexus of police, bureaucrats and top-rung politicians. Once this nexus is broken with honest leaders taking charge, I am sure in four months we will make a significant dent,” he added.

However, he said, while political will was important in rounding up drug peddlers, the rehabilitation of the addicts would be a major challenge.

Kejriwal, whose party had five MPs from Punjab in its maiden contest, claimed the mood of people in Punjab was in his favour. “People are dead against the Akalis; have tried the Congress many times and now they are in a mood to give us a chance,” he said.

Speaking on the drug menace in Punjab, Kejriwal said he was impressed by a group of youth who had launched a deaddiction campaign in the state. “I met a former addict who is now living in a shanty. He showed me a palatial bungalow and swaths of agriculture land nearby that he once owned and had lost it all for drugs.”

Kejriwal said that in case his party comes into power in Punjab, he would create a team of 15 volunteers in each village to help addicts.

Asked about his party’s alleged links with separatists in Punjab, Kejriwal quipped: “Give me one name; I will throw him out.”

Also read: The SAD saga of Punjab - How bad governance is good business in Punjab