Desperate for drugs, they weep like children
Drug addiction has become a major poll issue with several leaders accused of shielding drug peddlers. The Tribune visited a village on the Punjab-Rajasthan border that has become a haven for addicts.
Sarbjit Dhaliwal and Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Kandukhera (Punjab-Rajasthan border), April 22
Jarnail Singh and his friend from a nearby village, both in their 40s, push their motorcycle, that has a flat tyre, towards the Rajasthan border. They have no time to get the tyre mended. For the drug vend in Haripur (Rajasthan) may close any time.
As Jarnail Singh crosses Kandukhera, Punjab's village on the tip of the border with Rajasthan and Haryana, he becomes just another drug addict desperate for his daily dose of opium or poppy husk.
Kandukhera residents, in a referendum in 1986, voted on behalf of the Abohar-Fazilka belt and chose to remain with Punjab. Sadly, the village is now making news for the wrong reasons.
It has become the base for addicts who cross over to Rajasthan to buy drugs that are sold at licensed vends there. Some like Swarna have taken rooms on rent in the village owing to its proximity with Rajasthan.
Scores of addicts travel to Haripur everyday and swarm the poppy husk vend along the Lambi- Hanumangarh road in Rajasthan.
The Tribune team saw drug addicts, mostly from far off Punjab villages, camping outside this vend. They said the drug supply had dried up. Consequently, the price had shot up from Rs 150 per 100 gm used to Rs 300-Rs 500 per 100 gm.
In Rajasthan, poppy husk is sold at Rs 600/ kg to those who have been issued permits, twice in a week. But to those from Punjab, it is sold at Rs 1500- Rs 1800/kg. In case of reduced supply, the rates go as high as Rs 4,000/kg. A dispute between vend contractors and the recently formed BJP Government in Rajasthan is said to be the reason behind the current short supply. But the addicts refuse to buy this.
They say the shortage is owing to large quantities of husk/opium being bought by Punjab politicians prior to the April 30 elections and also because of the harvesting season.
Desperate for drugs, the addicts weep like children. They are inconsolable. Earlier, the vends would open throughout the day, but for the past few weeks, these are opened only for a while.
At a short distance from the Haripur vend lies an ice cream vendor from Lambi, half conscious. He has been beaten up by fellow addicts for trying to snatch a packet of poppy husk from them.
key words : drugs and punjab, rajasthan drug depots, opium vends, drug addicts, kandukhera, punjab-haryana-rajasthan border, bathinda, drug habbit, drug desperation
link :http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140423/punjab.htm
3 comments:
Very bold useful and informative well investigated report. Appreciated.
Very bold, useful and well investigated report. Appreciated.
Also needs to be investigated about the forces behind this whole game-plan and who wants to destabilize the Punjab by spreading the drug addiction specially among'st the youth.
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