Page 41 - English Tehelka Issue 3&4

drugs agriculture

Why has a dead fish Substances (NDPS) Act. have started looking for alter- Punjab: state that set agri trends undermined soil health. Thus, farmers

The business, dominated
become Worth by synthetic drugs, is said native routes. now faces severe farm distress have to invest more in fertilizers and pes-
This was evident from
ticides to maintain productivity levels.
the seizure of two kilograms
Paddy is a water guzzling crop. Farm-
to have escalated in Punjab
`1.25 crore in Punjab? since 2012 to the extent that it Heroin worth about 10 crore While the most fertile state in India is perceived as the epitome of ers rely highly on underground water to
became a political issue which made also by the Jagraon po-
irrigate their fields and pay through their
was turned into a major poll lice from Punjabi NRI Amarjit nose for running diesel-run power back-
plank by Congress and AAP Singh based in New Jersey, agricultural progress and a benchmark for others in record grain up for tube wells. Subsidy on power is
A fallout of the state police launching a concerted fighting the electoral battle to USA, shortly before cracking productivity, its farmers are languishing, KOMAL AMIT GERA reports provided to agriculture sector but power
offensive seems to have forced drug traffickers to wrest power from the incum- the sensational dead fish case. supply is erratic and frequent fluctuations
bent Akali Dal-BJP combine in “This man with ancestrally
make it less viable.
change their tactics, Raju William reports 2017 Assembly polls. sound financial background armers in the the help of state-of-the-art machinery Despite an extensive marketing net-
The state police launching was arrested while smug- state of Punjab and assured irrigation. This makes farm- work of grain procurement, implementa-
or about a year since about 1.25 crore,” said Surjeet a concerted offensive seems gling Heroin from Jammu Fare neck deep ing more investment-intensive for farm- tion of Agriculture Produce Market Com-
a dedicated Special Singh, Senior Superintendent to have forced drug traffick- and Kashmir into Punjab. For in debt. Accord - ers here. Rising input costs and dwindling mittee (APMC) Act and assured returns
Task Force (STF) on of Police (SSP), Ludhiana ers change their tactics. It is the first time, we busted this ing to the National returns in agriculture has put the farmers on crop with the help of MSP regime,
drugs was formed in Rural, based in Jagraon. being observed that due to new supply line. Investigation Sample Survey Of- in double jeopardy. cultivators are at the receiving end.
FPunjab in March 2017, Before this, there have this they have, of late, turned showed that he used to visit fice (NSSO)’s 70th According to a study, nearly 48.6 per Lack of awareness and education
the state police is giving the been instances of drug traf- their focus on Heroin, a very India in the garb of a travel round on Situ - cent of farmers who have committed sui- among farmers and intervention of com-
deeply entrenched drug traf- fickers concealing contraband high-value drug and easier agent,” added the SSP who has ational Assessment cide in Punjab in recent years are below mission agents in connivance with gov-
fickers a run for their money. in false cavities of containers, to conceal as compared to led his team to major suc- of Agricultural 35 years of age, while the percentage is as ernment officials erodes the profits of
Ironically, this has smart- picture frames, fruit boxes, bulkier synthetic stuff and cesses against drug smuggling Households in India, Punjab is second high as 57.5 per cent in case of agricultural farmers. Commission agents fleece farm-
ened hardcore traffickers heels of footwear, etc. But this poppy husk. Since stepped up in his area. after Kerala and Andhra Pradesh with an labourers. 7,000 farmers in Punjab com- ers by doing paperwork on their behalf
with international linkages. instance has admittedly taken efforts aided by fencing along The common denomina- average amount of outstanding loan of mitted suicide during 2000-2010 due to and give farmers bad deals.
They have started thinking the cops by surprise. Its king- the international border with tor of almost all the recent 1,19,500 per household. agricultural distress. Satish Verma, an RBI Chair Professor
out of the box, adopting inno- pin was traced to be a foreign Pakistan have helped choke seizures is the deep nexus The total outstanding debt of farmers The problems of Punjab’s farmers are at the Centre for Research in Rural and
vative methods to keep their national identified as Nabus the supply line, traffickers between the international in Punjab is 52,438 crore and average diverse. Despite cultivating in rain-fed Industrial Development, has estimated
unholy business going on. alias Michael lodged in jail at suppliers and their local as- farm household debt is 4.98 lakh for alluvial soil of the Indo-Gangetic belt, cul- that the proportion of rural households
How do they do it? Recent Nabha, Punjab under the Nar- • Changing tacks Traffickers are now sociates. The second fortnight year 2012-13, claims a study by Punjab tivators are inflicted with declining water with outstanding debt is about 90 per
instance of using dead fish for cotic Drugs and Psychotropic using dead fish to smuggle drugs of January also witnessed the Agriculture University, Ludhiana. Punjab table, diminishing soil-fertility, lack of cent in Punjab and debt outstanding due
smuggling Heroin that the seizures made by the police is associated with kick starting the Green institutional credit, high land lease for to institutional sources is 60 per cent and
police stumbled upon throws and STF in quick succession. Revolution in the country and makes tenant farmers and inadequate extension non-institutional sources is 40 per cent.
light on their latest modus A Nigerian woman and her sizeable contribution to food procure- services. The nominal revisions in Minimum
operandi. In a joint operation, two local accomplices were ment for public distribution, but over the The assured returns on wheat and Support Price have not been able to
Ludhiana Rural police and arrested with one kilogram years the profitability of cultivators has paddy have driven farmers to grow accommodate shooting input costs.
Counter-Intelligence, Jaland- Heroin worth about 5 crore been declining abysmally. Farmers in mainly these two crops since the Green Growing number of suicides by young
har unit, arrested Rosette by Jalandhar Rural police. A Punjab practice scientific farming with Revolution of the late 1960s and it has farmers because of failure to repay debt
Namutabi, a woman from case involving another Nige- is a serious concern, says Satnam Singh
Uganda residing in New Delhi, rian national was reported Behru, a farmers’ leader from Punjab.
carrying 1.5 kilograms Heroin from Ropar district of the According to reports, since 2007, about
worth about 7.5 crore under state during this period. 6,550 industrial units have gone sick and
the skin of six dead fish. Five The total seizures of Heroin approximately 18,770 units have either
capsules, each weighing 50 in the state amounted to 177 shut down or migrated from Punjab.
grams, were found concealed kilograms since March 2017. An estimated 75 lakh reserve army of
in each fish. Of this, 85 kilograms has unemployed persons, mostly agricultural
“This is the first of its kind been recovered by the STF labourers, is staring at the job market. A
seizure in the state. We got to whereas the district police state that recorded about 7,000 farm-
learn about the contraband units accounted for the rest. er suicides during 2000-2010 is a bad
being carried this way after Tightening the noose around example to emulate as Punjab has always
tracking the mobile phone the purveyors of drugs and set trends.
calls made between this their associates including
woman courier and her han- black sheep in the police has Komal Amit Gera is a financial journalist
dler. Going by the internation- brought desired results. and an adjunct Professor at
al price of the seized contra- Panjab University, Chandigarh.
band, each dead fish is worth letters@tehelka.com letters@tehelka.com
photo: tehelka archives

Tehelka / 28 february 2018 40 www.Tehelka.com Tehelka / 28 february 2018 41 www.Tehelka.com

40 Drugs Raju William.indd 3 12/02/18 3:42 PM 41 Punjab Agricalture.indd 3 12/02/18 3:44 PM