Punjab is currently facing many challenges in terms of law and order. The continuous influx of illegal weapons and narcotics from across the border through drones and from within the country through other routes has made these challenges even more widespread. Although these challenges have been big for the past several decades, their size and impact have increased even more with the passage of time.
In the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections, the Aam Aadmi Party presented the above challenges as a major issue and assured the people of the state that if their government is formed, the law and order situation will be improved by controlling drug smugglers, gangsters and other criminals so that people of all sections of the state can feel safe and the state can once again walk on the path of progress. The Aam Aadmi Party government has now completed almost 3 years in the state. But no progress has been made.
Now after the defeat of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi assembly elections, the party has focused its attention on Punjab. There is pressure on the AAP government to come up with concrete results in this regard. The senior leaders of the party have also clearly asked their Punjab leadership to take concrete steps to improve the government’s performance in law and order and other related areas. Perhaps keeping this in mind, the Punjab government has decided to launch a large-scale campaign against drug peddlers so that it can win the upcoming elections.
AAP government’s bulldozer war against drugs
As part of the ‘War on Drugs’ campaign launched by the state government, the Punjab Police has identified around 250 drug peddlers across Punjab. So far, in the past few days, the Punjab Police has registered 58 FIRs across the state and arrested 70 drug peddlers, out of which two peddlers have been caught after firing. The number of drug smugglers arrested in three days has now reached 433. Police teams have also recovered 5.83 kg heroin, 600 grams of ganja, 200 grams of opium, 1748 narcotic pills/injections and drug money worth Rs 1.82 lakh from the possession of the arrested drug smugglers. Cases of demolition of buildings using bulldozers have been heard in many states including Uttar Pradesh in the past. But now buildings have been demolished by the police using bulldozers in Punjab as well. It is worth mentioning that a two-member bench of the Supreme Court had issued guidelines regarding demolition of properties using bulldozers in the country in November, 2024.
The bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Vishwanathan had said that demolishing a person’s house or property just because he is accused of a crime is against the rule of law.
Punjab Police has so far carried out this operation on 6 houses of drug peddlers. Bulldozers were used on 4 houses in Ludhiana, while one house each in Patiala and Ropar was used.
But it has not been clarified yet who is providing drugs to these peddlers and how far this link is connected behind it?
It may be recalled that before this bulldozer operation, the Chief Minister of the state, Bhagwant Singh Mann, had held an important meeting of the civil and police officers of the state in Chandigarh regarding the prevention of drugs, in which he had ordered a large-scale campaign to make the state drug-free in the coming three months. He had said that those who sell drugs should be caught and thrown in jail. He also said that if necessary, changes can also be made to the law regarding the prevention of drugs to make it stricter. Along with this, he has also asked the civil administration to formulate plans for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug-addicted youth.
For this purpose, the Punjab government has also formed a five-member sub-committee of the cabinet yesterday, headed by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema.
However, such actions have been taking place in the past. So far, the big drug lords have not been caught. In this regard, the AAP government is being criticized on social media and it is being called a government drama. Some big politicians and some corrupt police officers are behind this network of drug trafficking. The people of Punjab have made these allegations. These drugs are coming from Gujarat, Pakistan and Himachal. They are being supplied to the jails.
Regulating the sale of prescribed drugs at drug de-addiction centers is a step in the right direction by the Punjab government, although the government is not catching the big drug lords. Punjab has seen such strictures before.
In 2017, the then Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had promised to crack down on drug trafficking within four weeks. His government took several steps, including annual drug testing of government employees and the establishment of an anti-narcotics officer. But no major kingpin was caught. That is why the drug crisis persists. Earlier, the Shiromani Akali Dal government led by Badal also proved to be a sham. Various methods were adopted by governments at different times, which did not yield the expected results.
The failure to break the big groups raises questions about the success of these campaigns. Often, the poor section, who are at the very bottom, who take drugs, have been an easy target for the police, while the ‘big fish’ remain. If this trend continues, drug trafficking will continue in some other form.
Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that recently
About 12,000 FIRs have been registered under the NDPS Act, out of which only 24 people have been granted default bail, while during the previous governments, drug smugglers often took default bail due to political influence.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Minister Aman Arora said that the AAP government has seized property worth Rs 612 crore of drug smugglers in 3 years, while during the 5-year tenure of the Congress, only Rs 142 crore was seized. He said that during the Congress rule, the current government has seized 1128 kg of heroin, an increase of 600 percent. Cabinet Minister Aman Arora said that despite the area up to 50 km from the border being under the jurisdiction of the BSF, drug smuggling from across the border has not been stopped so far. He said that instead of blaming the state, the BJP-led central government should take responsibility for the cross-border drug smuggling itself.
Cabinet Minister Aman Arora said that he said that committees have been formed in about 12,500 villages to deal with drug smuggling and more than three lakh drug addicts are undergoing treatment in OAT centers.
It is worth mentioning here that the three-month deadline is not realistic. Instead of easy methods, Punjab needs structural reforms, strict border surveillance, judicial efficiency and community-based solutions. Otherwise, this ‘new war on drugs’ will remain another political spectacle that will not be able to fulfill the promise of a drug-free Punjab.
