‘Ubharda Bathinda’: No meeting held in past 10 months

Gagandeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 7

No meeting has taken place under the project, ‘Ubharda Bathinda’, in the past 10 months and it seems that the infrastructure developed by the Bathinda police has turned into a white elephant.

This campaign was a dream project of the state police in Bathinda district, which was started in May 2016 when the issue of drugs was raised by political parties at a high level and several residents of the state held the state police responsible for the rising drug menace. As a result, the police decided to initiate the campaign. But when people started giving response to the police in the drive, the police pulled their hands back.

Under the project, the Bathinda police tried to spread awareness in the district through meetings and every village and ward were covered. As many as 600 meetings had been conducted.

SSP Swapan Sharma started the project and Nanak Singh SP (H) led it.

The district police rolled out a blue print to tackle and eradicate the drug menace involving 2,547 members of saanjh committees and representatives of various educational institutions, NGOs and youth clubs.

The motive of the initiative was to educate and make people aware of ill-effects of drugs, with a special focus on those families which included members who were already addicted.

The police had constituted committees at various levels such as village, ward, police station. These committees, along with members of NGOs and other institutions, also worked for the rehabilitation of identified affected people as well as bringing them back to the mainstream through counselling sessions.

As per sources, the committees had been formed in 411 villages, 175 urban wards.

In March 2017, the new government came to power in the state and the state police again started a fight against drugs with the formation of the STF. However, senior police officials had decided that the Bathinda police would continue the ‘Ubharda Bathinda’ campaign. However, no meeting had been conducted. NGOs and committees which started working under the campaign with zeal were disappointed with the apathetic attitude of the authorities concerned.

Meanwhile, SSP, Bathinda, Naveen Singla, said: “We will restart the campaign as the project is close to my heart. People of the district had given a big response to the drive in the past and we are sure that they will do the same in the future also.”