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Journalism of Courage
Having inherited a scourge that has tested successive governments, the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab is trying a new approach, though how effective it is remains to be seen.
In his Independence Day speech, Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann vowed to eradicate the menace within a year. On ‘Punjab Day’ on November 1, he reiterated his resolve, emphasising that refusing consumption is the key to eliminating drugs.
The state government’s strategy involves a dual approach: Persuading users to move away from drugs while implementing strict measures against suppliers, including seizing their properties. Simultaneously, the state is working on a new mental health policy to rehabilitate drug users.
Earlier this month, Mann told district police chiefs to adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards traffickers, urging them to seize their assets. Specifically, the state government is trying some new interventions to tackle an old menace:
Action against big fish: Property worth Rs 88 crore belonging to those accused in NDPS cases has been seized this year. There’s also a proposal to give SHOs the power to freeze properties made from drug money. Further, financial intelligence units have been set up in every district, manned by young and tech-savvy assistant sub-inspectors with a team of six constables.
Choking the supply: The Punjab police has set up 100 checkpoints along the 553-kilometre international border, ensuring a police checkpoint every five kilometres, forming a second line of defence after the BSF. Village defence committees have been set up in every village within 19 kilometres of the international border.
Prevention: A social media blitz and police outreach since August, involving the district police chiefs and Station House Officers (SHOs). In the last two months, police say their social media handles have shared 2,288 posts generating over 960 million impressions. Police also host an average of 37 events per month across the state, including marathons, cyclothons, gully cricket, competitions, street plays, and more, all aimed at creating awareness.
Ever since drugs began to gnaw away at Punjab, successive state governments have been following the EDP (enforcement, deaddiction and prevention) method without much results. A noticeable change occurred this August, when the state police chief, DGP Gaurav Yadav, held a session with district SSPs. Recognising an issue with numerous small seizures, they decided to target major suppliers while launching extensive outreach programmes to deter drug use.
An analysis by The Indian Express of 11,156 FIRs filed under the NDPS Act by the Punjab police between April 1, 2022 and February 28, 2023 (the state police had presented a summary of their anti-drug efforts to the Assembly during this period) testifies to small seizures being an issue.
In fact, a large number of arrests were tied to minor drug seizures, raising questions about the focus on end-users or users-turned-peddlers rather than major players/syndicates in the drug trade. Out of the 11,156 FIRs, 2,804 cases involved minor seizures, dwarfing the 275 major ones. Plus, there were 2,746 cases related to prohibited or “nasheeli” tablets. The NDPS Act defines 5 grams of heroin as a small quantity and 250 grams as a commercial quantity. Similarly, for ganja, 1 kilogram is considered a small quantity, and 20 kilograms is the commercial quantity. Anything between this range is called “lesser than commercial quantity but greater than small quantity” in the legal parlance or “intermediate” quantity informally.
Intriguingly, while the names and addresses of almost all those caught with small quantities were meticulously recorded, in the case of larger seizures, many names were missing. In Amritsar Rural, for instance, 10 FIRs registered for seizures of several kilos of heroin showed “unknown” in the column for names of the accused.
Since August, though, the police have made significant progress, including seven arrests in major cases and the seizure of over 118 kilos of heroin from border districts such as Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Faridkot.
The police are also mulling preventive arrests of suspected drug dealers to completely stamp out supply. “We have seized over one tonne of heroin till September this year, which is unprecedented in the history of the state’s war on drugs,” says DGP Yadav, who has also set up financial intelligence units in every district to track the money trail and disrupt the supply chain.
“Besides, we have set up village defence committees in border areas to help choke the supply,” says Yadav, under whose watch the Punjab police has started working closely with Border Security Force officials.
The state government is also roping in the health machinery to revamp deaddiction and rehabilitation facilities. Punjab Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh told The Indian Express that the government is formulating a new mental health policy to check the menace.
“The new policy will have a shift in strategy. The emphasis would equally be on rehabilitation, skill development and hand-holding of addicts, so they become agents of change and pull out others from the dark world of drugs. We have introduced yoga and meditation in deaddiction and rehabilitation centres. These will be linked with skill development centres so that addicts can lead a normal life and have something to look up to,” said the health minister, who is himself a doctor.
Speaking in the Punjab Assembly in March, the minister had estimated that 10 lakh individuals in the state are grappling with addiction.
