Amarinder calls cabinet meeting on drugs issue
Chandigarh, June 30: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has convened a cabinet meeting on Monday to review the progress of the investigations and discuss ways and means of countering the menace, an official said on Saturday.
Amarinder's 15-month old government has been under attack from the opposition for having failed to wipe out drugs from Punjab.
Amarinder, who had before the assembly polls in February last year vowed that he would eradicate drugs from the state within four weeks of coming to power, claims that his government has cracked down on drugs.
"The Chief Minister had called for the meeting to discuss the issue, particularly in the context of the recent spate of drug related deaths in the state," an official spokesperson said here on Saturday.
Thirty-three deaths have been reported in the state in the month of June due to drugs abuse and drugs overdose.
Expressing concern over the spurt of such deaths and drug cases, the Chief Minister has also asked senior police officers to be present at the meeting, scheduled to be held in Chandigarh, the spokesperson said.
"The Chief Minister has expressed the desire for collaborative efforts by all government functionaries as well as the citizens of the state to completely wipe out the drug menace and make Punjab a drug-free state, as promised by him before the 2017 assembly elections," the spokesperson said.
The Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have accused the Amarinder government of doing nothing to contain the drugs racket in the state.
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ISRO successfully conducts second integrated air drop test for Gaganyaan mission
New Delhi (PTI): Space agency ISRO has successfully conducted the second integrated air drop test (IADT-02) for the upcoming Gaganyaan mission at the space station in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.
The system is essential to ensure a safe recovery of the crew module -- the capsule in which astronauts sit during a human flight -- during re-entry and landing.
Union minister Jitendra Singh congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for successfully conducting the test.
"Congratulations #ISRO for the successful accomplishment of Second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) for #Gaganyaan, India's first Human Space flight scheduled next year. The second Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-02) was successfully conducted at Satish Dhawan Space Station Sriharikota," Singh said in a post on X.
The IADT-02 follows the successful completion of the first IADT, which took place on August 24, 2025, at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
Air drop tests recreate the last leg of a spacecraft's return to Earth. An aircraft or helicopter drops the spacecraft from a height to test various systems under different scenarios.
These are the deployment of the parachute system in case the mission is aborted mid-flight, system performance when one parachute fails to open and the spacecraft's orientation and safety during splashdown etc.
In the IADT-02 test, a simulated crew module, weighing about 5.7 tonnes, was lifted by an Indian Air Force Chinook helicopter to an altitude of about three kilometres and released over a designated drop zone in the sea, near the Sriharikota coast.
In a statement, the ISRO said, "Ten parachutes of four types were deployed in a precise sequence during the descent of the crew module, gradually reducing the velocity for safe touchdown. Subsequently, the simulated crew module was successfully recovered in coordination with the Indian Navy."
