Residents of Jhumba village protest outside Nandgaon police station in Bathinda. (Express) In Bathinda has scaled up its fight against drug abuse by forming a 21-member anti-chitta committee to take the battle to peddlers in the area. But Jhumba villagers have one grouse – the alleged lack of police support. On Monday, the members of the committee and their supporters staged a dharna outside Nandgarh police station. This protest came four days after residents lifted their dharna outside Dhobiana Basti in Bathinda city area on the same issue.
Jagseer Singh Jhumba, member of BKU (Ugrahan) and a resident of this village, said, “We provide information about suppliers and even handover the person to the police. However, much before we reach village, the person is released. Not only this, we also start getting threats after that. On March 11, a 25-year-old villager had died of drug overdose and villagers including the family members had staged dharna in the village after this. On March 15, we formed this front to start protecting our village from drug suppliers. However, two of our members got threats after that, so we gheraoed the police station on Sunday night after getting fresh threats from three persons who are farm labourers in the village. This anti-chitta front is working 24×7 as we don’t trust the local police.”
Lakhan Singh, president of the front, said, “Since March 15, we have handed over nearly 8-10 persons to local police but because of lack of proper evidence they have been set free. We provide information, but it is the duty of cops to investigate further.”
The village panchayat, farmer unions, mazdoor unions of the village are on the same page in the war against drugs.
Hardeep Singh, sarpanch of the village, said, “As per our information, around 150 persons consume drugs in our village. A few had been sent to rehabilitation centres too by us. However, we do face problems as many families hide information in this regard.”
Paramjeet Kaur Pammi, a khet mazdoor, said, “We women suffer the most when our young children, husbands fall prey to drugs. At times we do provide information about supplier to the cops, but the suppliers still gets away. Punjab needs to find a solution to drug addiction. This is the reason women too have become part
of this anti-chitta front.”
Lakhan added, “Two boys from our village who were addicts were caught in a mobile snatching case in Bathinda last month. They are still in jail. Two boys were caught stealing bicycles from village. A number of times, solar starters of motors go missing from village fields, LPG cylinders, utensils from houses go missing; taps, handles of handpumps from village common land are also found stolen. Such thefts are done by addicts for the want of supplies.”
The police, however, claim that the committee has mostly been picking on addicts, adding that they need to be rehabilitated and not persecuted. According to police, in several cases the contraband recovered in less than 5 gm which is not enough to file an NDPS case.
Amneet Kondal, SSP, Bathinda, said, “Police is conducting raids on daily basis against drug suppliers. On Sunday, we launched a helpline number so that people can provide information at this number. They can provide information at 9115502252 via WhatsApp or a phone call. We will protect the informer’s identity.”
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