Chandigarh: Former Delhi chief Minister and national convener of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday gave a clarion call to newly elected sarpanches of Punjab to wipe out the curse of drugs from the state.

Addressing a gathering in Ludhiana district as the chief guest of a state level function in which Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann administered the oath of office to 10,031 newly elected sarpanches from across the state, Kejriwal said that with proactive role of the village heads, Punjab will be soon a drug free state.

Stating that the state government and police are committed for this cause, he said that sarpanches have a major role to play and they should discharge their duty effectively. He also exhorted the sarpanchs of state to hold gram panchayats in their respective villages for making every decision in full public view to ensure transparency in development works.

The former Delhi chief minister said that the decisions pertaining to development of villages should be taken in gram sabhas for ensuring judicious utilisation of funds. Kejriwal further said that it is heartening to learn that around 3,000 panchayats have been elected unanimously which will give fillip to the development of villages.

Mann in his address said that in the recently concluded elections for panchayats, 13,147 new panchayats have been elected. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that in today’s state level function 10,031 sarpanches from 19 districts of Punjab are being administered oath while the oath taking ceremony of other newly elected sarpanches of remaining four districts namely Sri Muktsar Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Barnala and Gurdaspur and of 81,808 newly elected panches of 23 districts will be held after the by-elections of four Vidhan Sabha constituencies namely Giddarbaha, Chabewal, Barnala and Dera Baba Nanak.

The chief minister said that it is a matter of pride that the panchayats of 3037 villages were selected unanimously in the state and Ferozepur district took the lead by selecting 336 panchayats unanimously followed by Gurdaspur (335) and Tarn Taran (334).