Chandigarh, October 12
Most of Punjab's hinterland is hooked to drugs, right? It would seem so. Only yesterday, Rahul Gandhi spoke about its severity: seven out of 10 youth are doing drugs. The Akalis and the BJP didn't like the figure. So, a day after the Congress general secretary left the city, the question swirling around the political circles on Friday was: How did he reach the alarming figure? Here's the source: the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The order came in July this year in the case of Gurjeet Singh versus the state of Punjab. The order of Justice Paramjeet Singh read: "A staggering 75 per cent of Punjab's youth is hooked to drugs." The state government submitted the figure to the court in 2009.

The state Congress showed a copy of the affidavit, submitted by the Secretary Social Security and Women and Child Development. The affidavit says: "The vibrant Punjab that had ushered in the green revolution is today living in a dazed stupor as 67 per cent of the rural households in the state have at least one drug addict."

The affidavit quotes more figures from various sources that give varying figures of addiction rate (none less than 60 per cent).

Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar, said: "Rahul Gandhi was not blaming anybody. His was only a warning call after the authorities seized drugs worth more than Rs 550 crore."

Gobind Khatra, NSUI president, who gave the figures, said he had quoted from the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Vijendra Singla, MP, said Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal had recently asked Deputy Commissioners to set up drug rehabilitation centres. Minister Surjit Rakhra announced rewards for panchayats doing exemplary work on de-addiction. "This shows how serious the problem is," he said.

On the other hand, Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal trashed Rahul's statement. He said by making baseless and exaggerated statement, "Rahul has insulted 52 per cent youth population of Punjab painting every single youth with the black brush".

Badal said that Punjab could not be blamed for a spike in drug flow as BSF had failed to check the inflow. He said that Western borders was so porous that drug recoveries by Punjab police during the last five year were more than 50 per cent of National Recovery. He wanted the border with Pakistan sealed to check drug smuggling. Harcharan Bains, advisor to Punjab CM on media and national affairs, went to the extent of saying that "Rahul is a national joke" and even sought an apology.

BJP spokesman Manoranjan Kalia questioned Rahul Gandhi on the data presented by him. The judgement read that "two things open early in the State of Punjab: liquor vends and chemist shops. A small village may not be having a school but has a chemist shop. The surveys conducted by the various agencies mention that after Nagaland, Punjab ranks second in the country for drug abuse. 70 per cent of boys and girls in Punjab in the age group of 19-24 years are exposed to abuse of drugs."