Signs of resistance in Punjab’s drug hubs

Jasmine Singh in Amritsar/Tarn Taran

Ajit Singh runs a private school in Maqboolpura, a village off Amritsar. He is well aware of the notoriety linked to this ‘village of the widows’ — a hated moniker that tells volumes about the drug epidemic gripping the state. “The stain is difficult to wash off our collective memory despite so many positive changes in the village. Education is a basic tool helping kids from addicts’ families to deal with the problem. We realize such children are the prime victims of the dangerous situation,” he says. He and his wife also offer vocational training to girl students so that they can earn a livelihood without being distracted to drugs. 

Has it all changed, even a bit? Outside the school in the narrow lanes as the day draws on, Ajit Singh’s picture of a changing Maqboolpura wears the same deserted look as it has over the past few years: a few children play with old rubber tyres, some old women sitting outside their houses, heads hanging low. But there are no young boys or men around. “Go to that corner of this lane,” says an elderly Deedar Singh, “you would sure find some young boys huddled together, having alcoohol (adulterated spirits).” Deedar says he lost his family members to drugs and has now decided to go on a hunger strike if the government doesn't listen to him. “I have seen more than 200 drug-related deaths in the last one year in this village of over 10,000 people,” says Deedar.

Maqboolpura is a village where addicts take all kinds of drugs, but it is the adulterated synthetic alcohol substitute developed from chemicals that has emerged the most common addiction.

During the Punjab election campaign in 2017, Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal visited the village and promised to eradicate drug trafficking in “two months” if his party came to power. Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, too, had promised the same in “just four-weeks.” What has happened to the promises? 

“If anything has changed in Maqboolpura, it is the price of drugs, which has shot up in a few months. Many young boys in this village have either died because of drug overdose or they are struggling with menial jobs, barely surviving with drugs,” says Deedar. He has no good words for either the school or any other effort in tackling the problem. His response is cynical: “School vich bache paddey ne, unha nu ki pta nashe da, thode wade ho lain do, fer dekhna (what do the school kids know of drugs? Let them grow up and then we will see).”

Deedar says absence of job opportunities has lured youngsters into drugs. A small-scale industrial hub, Focal Point, is located near Maqboolpura. It has mainly cold storages and units engaged in manufacturing spray pumps. But Maqboolpura villagers have had no facility to train them in elementary skill development so that they can apply for jobs. “Training would-be workers is not our job. And even if we do have, who knows the person turns out to be an addict or a peddler. We cannot put our running business in danger,” says Pratap, a local businessman. 

Agriculture is out of the question as the villagers have no land holdings. “A private company official gives us a blank look when we tell him that we are from Malqboolpura. They look at us with suspicion,” says a villager. 

Deedar and several others cite deep-rooted politician-police nexus for the never-ending drug inflow. “You may see an odd naaka here, but you would never hear about the police having arrested a drug dealer. You will only hear about a poor addict getting caught with one gm chitta or for taking alcohol,” says Deedar.

An elderly woman, Swaran Kaur, recently lost her son in an accident while he was ferrying drugs. “People fear the wrath of politicians and the cops. “Police do minute laugi, mainu andar sutan ch jey main drugs bare boleya (the police would take minutes to arrest me if I talk about drugs.”

Advocate Kuljeet Singh Malawali, an RTI activist from Amritsar, says the drug situation continues to be very critical. For instance at Signal Basti, Ward No 1, Patti (Tarn Taran). Patti is located 45 km from Amritsar. As per the RTI filed by Mukhtiar Singh Patti, president, Anti Drugs Organization Punjab, Tarn Taran ranks number two in the category of highest drug addicts in Punjab with a total of 1,54,414 addicts in 2014-15. Mukhtiar Singh, a government employee, lost his 27-year-old son to drugs. He wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking to arrange a “shroud” of his son. “First the Akali’s denied rampant drug racket and substance abuse in Punjab and now the Congress is doing the same,” says Mukhtiar. 

As per his RTI, there are 39,54,168 people directly or indirectly affected by drug addiction in Punjab. “The number is increasing with each passing day.” He suggests that the death certificate should carry drug overdose in the column under 'reason for death.' He also insists on sharing the names and age of young boys who died from drug overdose recently. “Many among these victims are teenagers. Such information may prompt the authorities to be more serious about destroying the drug chain.”

Navpreet Kaur, a resident of the Basti, has seen her husband selling off all household items to get drugs. She sees him using injections everyday but there is nothing she can do because the private de-addiction centres demand Rs 60,000 and more while the government-run are “totally useless.” 

Navpreet and many like her do not know how to handle this deadly problem. “If we inform the police about a drug peddler, instead of catching him, they pass on the information to the peddler who then threatens and harasses us,” says a woman.

Residents in Maqboolpura and Patti hold police responsible for growing substance abuse. “The police side with the drug mafia and let them off the hook,” says Mukhtiar. 

Senior Superintendent of Police Darshan Singh Mann says people are coming forward to share information about drug availability. “It is because of people's support that we smashed the biggest drug racket in Tarn Taran, where peddlers crushed capsules and added heroin into them for sale.”

Mann claims to have broken the backbone of drug mafia in Patti. “We have sealed four illegally running medical stores in Khemkaran. We have 89 cases registered under the NDPS Act. We recovered over 2kg heroin, 5.480kg opium, 250kg poppy husk, and 6,60,500 capsules and tablets (Alparax, and Taramadol). Ours is a continuous drive as we all know this problem cannot be rooted out in a day.”