In Punjab, AAP's crackdown on alleged police-drug cartel links was long overdue

Last year, on Independence Day, CM Bhagwant Mann promised to ban it from the state by August 2024. But reports from the ground show no slowdown in either supply or deaths.

The CM warned that anyone in uniform suspected of having links with drug traffickers would not only be removed from service, but their properties would also be seized.

Days after its poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections, in which it won only three of the state's 13 seats, just two years after winning the state in the Assembly elections, the government Aam Aadmi party in Punjab is bringing the drug problem to the forefront. and center. Feeling that he has now been tipped off, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appears to have taken very seriously the rumors on the ground during the election campaign about the incessant flow of drugs. Last week, in an apparent bid to break the alleged link between the police and the drug cartel, a record 10,000 police officers were transferred. The CM warned that anyone in uniform suspected of having links with drug traffickers would not only be removed from service, but their properties would also be seized.

This border state has been ravaged by drugs for more than 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 the cases linked to possession of drugs for traffic. Last year, an Indian Express investigation revealed a worrying trend: at least 10 per cent of cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the state involved women. With their parents incarcerated and released, an entire generation of children faces a bleak future. Senior law enforcement officials are calling the advent of drugs narcoterrorism, highlighting how large consignments of drugs are being dropped by drones from across the 553 km-long border that Punjab shares with the Pakistan. There is also growing misuse of drugs, which accounts for around 25 per cent of cases registered in the state under the NDPS Act.