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Lip service on as
drug menace destroys Punjab
WSN Network
CHANDIGARH: At a
time when Sikh scholars, religious leaders and aware Sikh
intelligentsia is struggling to underline the harm being caused by
the drug menace in Punjab, the all too frequent recoveries of huge
amount of drugs in the state have been causing much worry to well
wishers of the Sikhs.
The Indian
government has been paying merely lip service to the concerns on
this score and many Sikh intellectuals have reason to believe that
New Delhi is not interested to act seriously since the menace is
affecting the Sikh youth and culture, an aim that New Delhi's rulers
in any case would not mind.
In an instance
of spasmodic show of concern, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir
Singh Badal has now asked the state police to work out a strategy to
strike at the root of narcotic trade and its supply chain but the
attempt is laughable since almost all drug trafficking involves
active or passive collusion of the police authorities.
The Badals have
done little in the past to curb the encouragement and involvement of
many politicians in the drug trade, and drugs are often used as an
inducement to buy votes. Along with other cross-border activities
like counterfeit currency, drug smuggling has emerged as one area
that, despite the seriousness involved, has received only casual
attention.
On August 19,
the police recovered 25 kg heroin worth Rs. 25 crore on the Pak
border in Amritsar. In the last few years,
Punjab
has emerged as a major international transit point for high quality
drugs like heroin from the Afghanistan-Pakistan belt. Heroin
recoveries by the State Police have been quite high, pegged at 111
kilogram in 2007, 269 kilogram in 2008 and 92.471 kilogram till
July 31,
2009. The recoveries are a miniscule part of the actual trade.
Carriers were
increasingly using Punjab as a transit route for international
trafficking of drugs.
Household
surveys in rural areas indicated the extent of addiction to 70 per
cent and at least one drug addict in 65 per cent of families in
Majha and Doaba regions and 64 per cent families in Malwa.
26
August 2009
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