‘Heroin openly sold here’: Bathinda villagers paint message for admn

Fed up with alleged rampant sale of heroin, several residents of Maur Kalan in Bathinda have painted “chitta is sold openly here” message on village walls, pointing towards the houses of alleged drug peddlers.

After learning about it, a police team rushed to the village and painted over the wall writings.

This comes days after a youth died of a suspected drug overdose in the village.

Two women from the village, Manjit Kaur and Krishna, alleged that the open sale of heroin had destroyed many young lives.

“Several youths have already fallen prey to addiction. Girls are becoming widows at a young age. Women are running households alone while their sons are dying,” Krishna said.

Some residents also raised slogans against the district administration and the police, claiming that the government’s ongoing campaign against drugs — Yudh Nashian Virudh —has failed to make any impact in their village.

Maur police station SHO Tarundeep Singh denied the accusations. “We have acted tough against drug peddlers in the past. Two accused were arrested recently after the youngster’s death and they are currently in jail.”

Meanwhile, Maur DSP Kuldeep Singh said, “In this village alone, we have registered 23 cases under the NDPS Act. Since March 1, we have arrested 43 persons from this village. Five people have been admitted to de-addiction centres while others have been sent to outpatient opioid assisted treatment (OOAT) centres.”

He added that residents often complained that drug peddlers, after securing bail, returned to illegal activities.

“We appeal to the public not to stand surety for them. They get bail from courts because only small quantities of drugs are recovered from them. We will keep conducting surprise raids in future as well,” the DSP said.