Infamous for addicts, spotlight back on Maqboolpura locality in Amritsar

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, March 20

After newly appointed Advocate General Anmol Rattan Singh Randhawa announced to improve the condition of Maqboolpura locality, the spotlight is once again back on the area that earned the ignominious moniker of housing a large number of drug addicts.

He may have taken a leaf out of the Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to the locality during the Punjab election campaign in 2017 to the area, when he promised to eradicate drug trafficking.

Four days ago, the police arrested one Bunty, alias Lifafa, and seized 50-gm heroin from him. The cops nabbed him during a checking held at a naka. The crime report mentions that he was a resident of Maqboolpura. The reporting of his residential address did not startle anybody, as his was not a case in isolation. The area is infamous for having lost several bread winners to the drug menace.

Once a village, Maqboolpura was incorporated into the Municipal Corporation decades ago. Addicts of the locality take all kinds of drugs, but it is the adulterated synthetic alcohol substitute developed from chemicals that has emerged the most common addiction.

Ajit Singh, a retired government teacher, whose family runs a charitable school Citizen Forum Vidyamandir offering education to kids from impoverished background and vocational training to girl students so that they can earn a livelihood. He along with late Brij Bedi, husband of former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, had set up the school in the locality to wean youngsters away from drugs.