Tackling drugs and liquor

The case of septuagenarian Paro Bai in Punjab’s Fazilka district, whose entire family has been booked under the NDPS and Excise Acts, points to the flourishing illegal trade in liquor and drugs. That she entered the business after her marriage to a bootlegger half a century back points to the antiquity of the practice and the reasons that lead to it. Before Partition, Fazilka was among the more developed areas of Punjab but lying in the border area has had its own share of problems with development projects lagging behind due to security concerns. The border areas have their own peculiarities. Farmers are not allowed to grow tall crops and have to adhere to fixed timings to cultivate their land lying near the international border. There are a whole lot of restrictions. Being a riverine area, villages are cut off from the mainland during the floods. As a result, the border areas have not developed in terms of education, health, sanitation and transport. The underlying cause mostly is economic and the making of undistilled liquor has acquired the status of ‘cottage industry’ with the law-enforcement machinery either blinking or being unaware.

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In neighbouring Haryana, Sirsa district has seen an increase in the number of persons reporting for de-addiction. It is a welcome sign but shows the magnitude of the problem in a state that borders Punjab and Rajasthan where the drug problem exists. Addiction, once restricted to the unemployed, now cuts across all segments of society. The price of drugs is said to increase in proportion to the risk attached and the spike in production in a strife-torn country like Afghanistan means there is no let up in supply as the consignment makes its way into India through a hostile country like Pakistan.

Punjab and Haryana have tried to combat the menace at the administrative, medical and popular level. While the problems of those affected should be looked into, the effort also has to come from within. Paro Bai is no Vito Corleone but her case does underline the fault lines in the approach to tackle the drug menace.