'Punjab needs to wake up to the challenge': HC calls for drug-free assembly polls

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The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently urged the state of Punjab to wake up to the mounting challenge of drug problem in the state and asked the Election Commission to ensure a drug-free election in the upcoming assembly polls.

A division bench of the high court of Justices Ajay Tewari and Pankaj Jain was ruling on a batch of cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act for suspension of sentence when the court also proceeded to take cognizance of the drug addiction issue that has marred the state of Punjab.

“Picture showing gold smoked mustard fields with the proud prosperous farmer used to showcase this land of five rivers,” Justice Jain said in his order. “Today Punjab is related to a portrait of wailing mother holding corpse of her son who died of drug overdose as well.”

Justice Jain went on to observe: “The malady has gripped the society. It cannot afford to be in a state of inertia.”

The appalling figures of pending NDPS cases before the high court highlights the need for Punjab to consider and evolve reformative measures than to only use NDPS Act as a deterrent, a concerned high court said. Citing the high court registry’s record, the court noted that nearly 16,000 appeals of convicts under the NDPS Act between the period of 2013 and 2021 remain pending as on date. The number of these cases does not seem to be coming down.

In such a scenario, it becomes incumbent upon the state government to shoulder the responsibility to catalyse an optimum response, the court said. “It is a welfare State and has a role bigger than mere policing. State of Punjab apart from registering cases (under NDPS Act), needs to wake up to the challenge,” the high court said.

The high court’s move to take cognizance of this widespread issue in the state comes at a time when the state is weeks away from going into polls to elect a new Assembly. The Election Commission notified February 14 as the date when Punjab casts its vote and March 10 as the date when the results will be declared.

Punjab has seen the menace of “drugs for votes” in the past, the high court said. Quoting the statistics furnished by a former election commissioner, the high court said that in 2012 a single month’s recovery resulted in seizures of 55 kg of heroin and around 430 kg of poppy husk. “Almost every psychotropic substance was found in circulation during elections,” the high court added.

While the court only cited 2012 figures, media reports suggest that the drug menace continued in the next assembly polls of 2017 when persons dependent on narcotic drugs found the substances home-delivered at their doorstep to secure support in elections. During the one month period when the model code of conduct was in place in 2017, drugs worth nearly Rs 18 crores were seized in the State, it was reported. Recoveries ahead of the model code of conduct were larger.

The picture is not different during general elections either.

But, to combat the issue this time around and ensure that the upcoming polls do not once again become a platform for further fuelling the perennial menace of drug dependence in the state, the high court has stepped in, taken cognizance of the issue and roped in the election commission as a party to the suo moto case.

‘Need integrated efforts to respond to (drug) ailment’ 

The issue of narcotic drugs in Punjab is not seasonal or just an electoral issue.

In the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment’ 2019 report titled Magnitude of Substance Use in India, Punjab featured among the top three states in categories for people needing help for cannabis-related problems, number of people needing help for opioid-related problems, people needing help for sedative-related problems, and people using injectable drugs. The Ministry’s 2015 survey titled Punjab Opiod Dependence Survey estimated that about 2.3 lakh people in Punjab were dependent on opioids. The actual number of users was expected to be much higher.

The issue at hand has moved beyond the state where individual efforts by public-spirited individuals alone could be relied on. A systemic action is the need of the hour, the high court opined as it called on the state government to provide its roadmap ahead to tackle the drug problem in the state.

The court has asked the state government whether any study has been commissioned to determine the cause and effect of drug addiction in Punjab, and if not, then how long before a study of this nature can be conducted.

This pertinent issue of drug addiction in Punjab will now be heard by the high court on January 20.