Crackdown on drugs

THE Punjab Government’s vigorous campaign to make the state drug-free in a year is gaining traction as the police are cracking down on traffickers smuggling large quantities of the contraband instead of targeting peddlers possessing a few grams of psychotropic and narcotic substances. The police have expanded their net by using a multi-pronged strategy to catch the big fish, even as drones and other means continue to be used to push drugs into India from across the Pakistan border.

Fazilka has emerged as a hotspot of narcotic trafficking from Pakistan this season, with the Sutlej river offering smugglers a new route as its span has increased substantially following the heavy monsoon rainfall. As BSF posts along the border got submerged or were washed away in the raging waters, Pakistani drug carriers got emboldened enough to swim over with higher quantities of drugs. The Special Services Operation Cell of the Counter-Intelligence Wing of the Punjab Police has recovered 147-kg heroin from the smugglers caught in the district in the past 45 days. The drive would indeed be successful if the interrogation of the accused leads the cops to the kingpins. In the past 14 months, around 1,400 kg of heroin has been seized across Punjab. However, a recent letter by a senior police officer, alleging links of lower-level cops with smugglers, shows that there is a lot more to be done. It’s time compromised officials are apprehended, too. Only then would the government achieve its aim of freeing the state from this evil.

At the same time, the shift in the state’s strategy towards focusing on the rehabilitation of youths nabbed with minuscule quantities of drugs rather than initiating criminal proceedings against them is a humane and effective way of dealing with the menace.