Chandigarh, Aug. 12 -- Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Tuesday said that the state government has been running a determined and non-stop campaign against drugs since March 1 this year, delivering some of the biggest results in the state's anti-narcotics efforts.

He accused the previous regimes, 10 years of Shiromani Akali Dal rule followed by 15 years of Congress, of pushing Punjab into a deep crisis by allowing drugs to spread to almost every household.

"The situation had become so bad that the only question in those days was how to deliver chitta (heroin) to the homes," he alleged.

Cheema said that in just over five months, between March 1 and August 12, the Punjab Police registered 16,322 cases related to drug traffic...