Opinion In Punjab, AAP’s crackdown on alleged police-drug cartel nexus was long overdue

Days after its poor showing in the Lok Sabha elections, in which it won only three of the state’s 13 seats, merely two years after sweeping the state in the assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab is putting the drugs problem at the front and centre. Sensing that he is now on notice, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann seems to have taken serious note of the rumblings on the ground during the poll campaign about the unrelenting flow of drugs. Last week, in an ostensible bid to break the alleged police-drug cartel nexus, a record 10,000 policemen were transferred. The CM has warned that anyone in uniform found with links to drug dealers would not only be dismissed from service but their property would also be seized.

The border state has been wracked by drugs for over a decade. According to the latest data released by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Punjab recorded the highest number of 144 drug overdose deaths in the country in 2023. In 2022, the state topped in cases pertaining to possession of drugs for trafficking. Last year, an Indian Express investigation found a disturbing trend — at least 10 per cent of the cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the state were against women. With their parents in and out of jail, an entire generation of children is staring at a bleak future. Veteran law enforcement officials call the advent of drugs narco-terrorism, pointing out how large consignments of drugs are dropped by drones from across the 553-km-long border that Punjab shares with Pakistan. There is also an increasing misuse of pharmaceutical drugs, which make up around 25 per cent of the cases registered in the state under the NDPS Act.

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Since 2017, successive state governments have come to power on the promise of eliminating this scourge. Former Congress Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had vowed to weed out the menace within 40 days. Last year on Independence Day, CM Bhagwant Mann promised to banish it from the state by August 2024. But ground reports don’t show a let-up in either the supply or the deaths. One reason is the enforcement policy that targets small peddlers and end users, with little action against the big fish. The Express investigation also found that only 2.46 per cent of the 11,156 FIRs filed under the NDPS Act by Punjab Police between April 1, 2022, and February 28, 2023, related to big operators. Whether this crackdown on the black sheep in the force and zero-tolerance towards suppliers will yield results is not yet clear. It must be hoped that it will — for the sake of the besieged state.