This year, 1,148 people have been arrested in seven drugs-hit districts: Bathinda, Mansa, Muktasar, Ferozpur, Faridkot, Fazilka and Moga. A dozen policemen were dismissed from service and 62 policemen are suspected to be close to drug peddlers.

Chandigarh: The drugs menace in Punjab, a big talking point in the parliamentary elections, has brought huge embarrassment to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance. Opponents are openly citing the involvement of some top politicians in the Rs 5,000-crore racket and the government has got cracking, and heads have begun to roll.

Punjab Jails minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur has been the first to go. He resigned after allegations of the involvement of his son, Damanvir Singh, in the drugs racket. The opposition, the Congress party, has also charged Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of shielding an important minister who has been allegedly patronising the drugs mafia in the state.

Several policemen have been charged with helping and protecting druglords too. Jagdish Bhola, a former DSP and druglord, upon interrogation, had named Damanvir Singh, office-bearer of the Akali Dal’s youth wing. He was summoned for questioning by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) but did not appear. The Akalis managed to keep the issue under wraps during the elections, but this did not stop the electorate from venting their anger against the Akalis. They voted heavily against the party.

Soon after the elections, Phillaur was forced to resign. The state government also ordered police raids across the state on suspected hideouts to crush the drug mafia and nab drug traffickers.

In his 19-page statement last year, Jagdish, an Arjun Awardee wrestler, had allegedly told the ED that another minister with an important portfolio is the 'kingpin’ of the drugs racket in Punjab which has international dimensions.

In yet another indication of Punjab policemen's links with the drug mafia, former ASI Pyara Singh, posted at Pantjur thana, Fatehegharh Sahib, was recently dismissed from service for being in collusion with the drugs mafia. The ASI was said to be serving as an informer for the drug mafia. The needle of suspicion pointed towards him after raids in Moga village by 600 jawans failed to yield any recovery of contraband.

The DSP of Bakala in Bathinda, Dinesh Singh, was recently suspended for allegedly assisting druglords. A constable, Satnam Singh, posted in Civil Lines, Moga was dismissed from service after a banned substance was seized from his possession.

So far during the year, as many as 1,148 people have been arrested by the police in seven drugs-hit districts: Bathinda, Mansa, Muktasar, Ferozpur, Faridkot, Fazilka and Moga. A dozen policemen have been dismissed from service for being complicit with the drugs mafia. Under its present campaign, the Punjab Police has started investigations against 62 policemen suspected to be close to drug peddlers. The police personnel under scrutiny are of the inspector, sub-inspector, assistant sub-inspector and constable levels. If the charges are proved, these suspects would be dismissed from service.

Jathedar of Akal Takht, Giani Gurcharan Singh, has claimed that the drug menace has grown significantly in the last five-six years. Unfortunately, the growing drug menace in Punjab that threatens to destroy the future of its youth continues to be a serious problem with no immediate solution in sight. The free availability and consumption of heroin, opium, barbiturates, cough syrups and alcohol have left Punjab’s society and economy dazed. In the absence of the political will to tackle the menace, it has managed to grow to unmanageable levels.

According to rough estimates by private agencies in the state, almost two million young Punjabis are drug addicts and the number is growing in leaps and bounds. Most drug addicts are young, in the age group of 15-35 years.

Drug abuse is rampant across the state in both the rural and the urban areas. Unemployment, poverty and a desire for earning quick money is making the youth go astray.

According to Dr J P S Bhatia, who runs a drug de-addiction centre in Amritsar, besides poor and unemployed, the educated youth too has found itself attracted to the lures of the drug abuse. Last year Olympian boxer Vijender Singh from Haryana had found himself involved in one such case. It was with great difficulty that he managed to extricate himself from the drugs abuse charge and rehabilitate himself in the sports arena, but many others are not so lucky.

A study by the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh, headed by Dr Pramod Kumar showed that almost 65 per cent of addicts in Punjab take drugs daily. In Punjab on an average 14 cases of drug smuggling are registered every day and 16 people booked daily under the NDPS Act. On an average around 270 kg of drugs are seized every year in Punjab.

Says Professor PS Verma of the IDC who is currently writing a book on the drug menace in Punjab, "Around 62 per cent of the rural and 37 per cent of urban youth have access to drugs in the state. Drugs abuse have been leading to serious health complications, including HIV and AIDS as many addicts have started injecting drugs," says Verma.