Mukhtiar with the medal he gifts those who overcome addiction. Kamaldeep Singh Brar Mukhtiar with the medal he gifts those who overcome addiction. Kamaldeep Singh Brar

Kaffan vaala banda.

That’s the name people here have given to 46-year-old Mukhtiar Singh, an assistant lineman in the Punjab power department. The name stuck after Mukhtiar’s son Manjit Singh died last March. He marched on Patti’s streets carrying Manjit’s body, and sat on dharna with it outside the SDM’s office, wrote a letter on his son’s kaffan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I sought the Prime Minister’s intervention to save Punjab from drugs…I also wrote a complaint against the Punjab government because I hold this government guilty of not doing enough…These Akali leaders know it all, but yet they don’t do anything. I am not a politician. I am a father who has carried his young son’s body to the crematorium. I don’t want other fathers to go through the same pain,” Mukhtiar Singh said.

He doesn’t know if the shroud reached Modi. “I submitted it to the SDM office, who asked me to hand it over to DSP, Patti. Through RTI, I learnt that the shroud had reached the office of DGP (Intelligence) on June 28. I don’t know if they forwarded it to the PM or have dumped it somewhere,” Mukhtiar adds.

Manjit, who was 28 years old when he died, was a heroin addict. He died of an overdose, after two or three years of futile visits to rehab centres. Manjit was a college dropout and could not get any job. Since losing Manjit, Mukhtiar has taken it upon himself to educate the youth of Patti about the dangers of drug addiction. He has found some supporters in Patti. He calls their group Kaffan Bol Peya (Speaking Shroud).

For the February 4 Punjab Assembly election, Mukhtiar has written to the State Election Commission seeking its permission to campaign, not for a candidate or a political party, but against drug addiction. Election time is also when drugs are more freely available, he alleges. Mukhtiar’s wife wife Bhupinder Kaur and son Jagjit Singh, a graduate who is job hunting, are supporting him in his initiative against drugs. His daughter is married. “I took my son’s body around Patti because I wanted to show people what drugs can do to them. I wanted people to change their mindset and come out openly against this menace”, he said.

Mukhtiar’s day begins early. As part of his routine, he steps out of his home, meet people and ask them to join him in his crusade against drugs. “My 9 am to 5 pm job takes me to several villages throughout the day. I keep an eye for such youngsters who are addicts. I talk to people of that village, asking them to help such youngsters”, he said.

Patti, which used to be a tehsil of Lahore before Partition, now falls in Tarn Taran, a border district of Punjab known for its high number of drug addicts and NDPS cases. An Assembly constituency, Patti is represented by SAD candidate Adaish Pratap Singh Kairon, son-in-law of Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal.

Kairon defeated Congress candidate Harminder Singh Gill by a thin margin of 59 votes in 2012 assembly polls. They are locked in a triangular contest with AAP candidate Ranjit Singh Cheema. Both Congress and AAP have promised to end the drug menace in weeks and months.

Harminder Singh Gill, who is contesting on a Congress ticket from Patti, said, “A large number of youngsters have died due to drug overdose in Patti in the last 10 years. The police-politico nexus is facilitating the drug supply even at addicts’ doorsteps. Politicians’ close aides are into business of drug smuggling. There is story of death due to drug addiction in each and every street of Patti. Only opening de-addiction centres cannot cure drug addiction. The supply needs to be snapped. After coming to power, this shall be our top priority”.

Said Ranjit Singh Cheema, AAP candidate from the constituency who is making his debut in politics: “Curbing the drug menace is on our top priority, not only in Patti but across the state. There are many like Mukhtiar Singh who have lost their children to drugs. The supply chain needs to be snapped. Akalis and Congress, both had ruled this state in turns for decades. People have seen them and are now fed up of their false and hollow promises,” he says.

People in Patti say they have never seen sitting MLA Adaish Partap Singh Kairon after the last elections. And though he has been nominated to the same constituency by SAD, he is yet to visit this election. “He is an alien to this constituency who surfaces only during polls. Last time also he barely secured a victory by a thin margin. He won’t make it this time,” says Cheema.

Kairon was not available for comment despite several efforts to reach him. But the Shiromani Akali Dal has maintained that Opposition parties have blown the issue of drugs out of proportion and alleged this was being done with a view to defaming Punjab, and its youth. But this ramshackle rural-urban town close to the Pakistan border, is evidence that there is no wishing away the drug problem in the State.

At the Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) Centre, a Union government initiative on the premises of the Civil Hospital, addicts as young as 13 and 14 years queue up for their daily dose of drug substitute. Around 900 addicts are registered at the OST. Over 200 have been visiting the civil hospital regularly.

Opposite the OST, the Punjab government-run drug de-addiction centre used to have 120 patients in OPD per month. The number has declined over the last few months. One doctor visits the centre once a week, as she has to look after patients at Tarn Taran and Sarhali de-addiction centres on other days.

Dr. Isha Dhawan at drug de-addiction centre in Patti said, “On an average 120 patients come to OPD. Around 25 new patients come every month. We are trying our best to convince, educate and treat as many as we can. There are a few who are off drugs after treatment but yet there is a lot more that needs to be done”.

Aside from these two, there is a new drug rehabilitation centre in Bhagupur, a village in Patti tehsil. The town also has one government-sponsored NGO called Himalayan foundation, working to spread awareness about the dangers of getting HIV /AIDS from used syringes. Tarn Taran itself has the worst drug numbers for Punjab.

Mukhtiar Singh, who uses RTI to collect data relating to drugs, has all the information about the district.

“Tarn Taran district received maximum 83,873 addicts at the de-addiction centres out of a total of 2,91,367 addicts in 17 out of 22 districts of Punjab in 2014. Tarn Taran again topped the list in 2015 with 70,335 addicts enrolling in de-addiction centres among total 2,02,904 in the same 17 districts. The district also has a distinction with maximum of 4213 cases registered under NDPS act in last five years across the state. A total of 4,670 accused were arrested in those cases”, Mukhtiar Singh reels out from the replies he has obtained from the 17 out of 22 district administrations — Amritsar, Bathinda, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh and Faridkot did not reply to his queries.

Mukhtiar, who is also president of Technical Service Union of Bhikhiwind, a body of Punjab State Power Corporation employees, recently met Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal. “I gave him the figures on drug-addiction across Punjab. He quotes the same data in his speeches while addressing the drug issue in Punjab,” he says with pride.

But Mukhtiar adds in the same breath that he is not inclined towards any particular political party. “Some political parties have approached me to join them, but I said no,” he says.

Mukhtiar Singh maintains a file of cuttings on deaths due to drug addiction. “You would never know exact number of deaths due to drug addiction because people are ashamed to admit it,” he says. But he has been able to convince some people in Patti that talking about drug addiction is half the journey to winning the war against it. Tirath Ram, a juice vendor, says he is now facing the fact that both his sons are drug addicts.

“They may not live for long. That’s the reason I am not planning their marriage. I don’t want to spoil the life of any young girl by hiding this truth,” said Tirath Ram, with tears in his eyes. Attending to customers at his roadside vend, Tirath Singh says: “Drugs are easily available in this area. You just need to have money. Drugs will be provided at your doorstep. I attempted to get treatment for my sons. But I failed. No treatment can be successful until the drugs supply is cut.”

Repeating the widely leveled allegation of a nexus at the top levels between drug suppliers, law enforcers and politicians, he says: “Only government can stop supply but they themselves facilitate drug smugglers”.. Like Mukhtiar, Gurcharan Singh, a roadside tea vendor and resident of Bhagupur in Patti also lost his son last year. “Despite best of my efforts, I could not save him. Now, I am raising my grandson”. Mukhtiar, meanwhile, hopes the SEC will give him permission to campaign.

“There are rules barring government employees from canvassing or campaigning. But there can’t be a rule barring a father who lost his son to drugs from preventing other youngsters meeting the same ill fate,” he says.

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