Emaciated Punjab Needs Change Now

[kdsingh80]

Emaciated Punjab Needs Change Now

by RAVNEET SINGH

For a while now, we have been aware that there is a problem in Punjab.

But, we were not sure what precisely we should do about it. We held a meeting the day after a recent story in Tehelka on the deterioration of Punjab appeared.

On one hand was the disturbing story that triggered much thought in us. On the other hand was Rahul Gandhi's repeated caution that we must not earn discredit by doing anything half-hearted. So we pondered long and hard. We decided we needed to go to the people first and understand why the situation in Punjab has turned so grave. We didn't want to talk of religion or votes, which seem to put people off, especially the youngsters.

We needed a new revolution. So we called it the New Revolution Padayatra. I, as president of the Punjab Youth Congress, would walk 1,200 km in 45 days across Punjab. The padayatra began on 1 November and concluded on 15 December at Ludhiana. We chose two main themes: drug addiction and female foeticide.

My frist shock was in a village called Channo in Fatehgarh district.

We were there on Diwali night. Channo is not a very rich village. In fact, I learned many things about Punjab. The general perception is that Punjab is among the richest states in India, but I found deep-rooted widespread poverty in the state, especially its interiors.

In Channo, we found a group of farmers were sitting idle in the mandi. There was too much moisture in their produce this year because of the heavy rains and no one was buying. In any case they had a poor harvest. We offered candles and a few firecrackers, which we had brought with us to distribute.

The women were all at home. Not celebrating, just sitting and talking. The men were lying around in a group, mostly drunk. The youngsters were in another group, playing cards and high on smack. This was Fatehgarh, not Amritsar, and they were still heavily addicted.

When we reached Bhatinda, we found 50 to 60 cancer patients in almost every village. Everyone wither had cancer or hepatitis. My aunt had hepatitis so I know how bad it can get. At least two families related to the Chief Minister have cancer patients but the administration is still not sensitised enough. The people in the villages here had accepted illness as their fate. Most of it comes from the polluted water and air.

During my yatra I found that you can't drink natural water in Punjab now. Everything comes from RO filters. All villages have an RO plant to escape the brackish water. The RO plants need frequent maintenance so the villagers suffer anyway. I also found women picking cotton for as little as Rs. 60 a day when even MGNREGA wages are about Rs. 100. This is Punjab.

In the beginning, people seemed wary of us. They probably thought we had come to seek votes. But slowly, by the time we neared Amritsar, they began to join us. Women came out in large numbers and said they would join us in the fight against drugs.

The main issue in Punjab is drugs. It has got tricky because the traditional drugs like opium and smack are not so heavily abused now. They are still there but it is the pharmaceutical drugs that are causing havoc. Synthetic drugs have taken over. Everywhere in Punjab we saw medical shops. In every village, even where there are only 1,000 people, they had four medical shops mostly operating without licence.

We would start early every day for the yatra. And we saw the same sight each morning. The markets across the state open at 10 am. But two things start early in Punjab: medical shops and liquor vends. I saw them open even at 6 am with the staff sprinkling water, cleaning the place and getting it ready like one would do for a flower shop.

I checked at nearly 30 places. There is a queue of people every morning at medical stores. If they can't get their supply of drugs at that point, they buy alcohol at a nearby vend and drink for a couple of hours until their supply arrives. When we would walk past schools and colleges, we saw the same thing done a little differently. At some places, policemen in vehicles would be keeping an eye on the medical shops. So, the staff would stock their stuff in a car and settle down at eateries near schools and colleges. Small kiosks that are called canteens. No one bothers them there and the trade flourishes.

Punjab has been a bright star for India, which is now in a state of ruin. This is not apparent until you go to the interior. I see no ray of hope for Punjab as things stand and this should be a big worry for Punjab and India. Even a single example will show how bad things are.

Sometime in early December, the army held a camp near Ludhiana to enlist soldiers.

Traditionally, Punjab used to have the maximum number of soldiers in the Indian Army. In this exercise, the army was hiring for 18,000 vacancies. Only 1,924 were selected from Punjab. Youngsters were rejected because some didn't have the necessary height, others didn't have the chest, and still others didn't have the stamina. Today, Punjab is so unfit. [/seventy percent of the youth is on drugs and 40 percent couples are unable to conceive because of drugs.

I realised that a big change is needed to save Punjab.

It must start with us politicians, though it cannot be limited only to the government and political parties. We found at many places people were reluctant to come out and join the yatra openly. They said they were with us but didn't dare to say so or show it openly. They were afraid of the police, who were keeping an eye on the yatra, zooming in and out, hovering around us all the time. This is a symptom of the political culture in Punjab. When governments are formed, political parties tend to target opponents rather than focus on development. This breeds a desire for revenge and when the other side comes to power, they do the same thing. Some activists said there were 60 FIRs against them.

This must change.

The time for petty power politics is over in Punjab.

All parties must come together to run a mass movement to rescue Punjab. Even then, it would take 15 years of social revolution for Punjab to recover. Our New Revolution will not stop with the padayatra. In a couple of months, we will host a seminar where we hope to come out with a Punjab Revival Policy.

But that alone is not enough. We must all decide, whichever party we are from, not to give drug dealers tickets in the next election. The Election Commission must keep a strict watch so that drugs are not given for votes.

I saw that people have awakened a little because of the yatra. Some may have begun to think as well. There was a youngster who came rushing to me as I was leaving Patiala. He had read our pamphlet and asked if we were helping people get off drugs. He said he was a smack addict and was fed up. He wanted to give up but didn't know what to do. He was ostracised as an addict in his village. I told him we couldn't get people off drugs. We were only telling them drugs were bad.

This brings me to another problem in Punjab.

There are no decent de-addiction centres in the state. There are a few local ones, where they beat up patients. Families get fed up and leave the addicts in these places. They get no proper treatment. There is no dignity and they don't know what to do once they are off drugs. I know NRIs who spend up to Rs. 500,000 on kabaddi tournaments in their villages. It would be so much better if they helped set up good rehab centres for addicts. I tell the NRIs I know but I hope others reading this would come forward to help.

My focus is not on the ones already addicted. I want to intervene and stop the next generation from becoming addicted. Every third house has an addict. Punjab has nothing to give the next generation. Its land has gone to the colonisers. Most people have sold their land. Now, even migration to the West has slowed. This would cause a great problem over the next 15 years. People in other states are happy with basic things like good roads.

In Punjab, they compare themselves with Canada. They want big lives. They won't do small work. The big work isn't there because industry is moving out to other states. So, I see more people getting into drugs in the coming years. Big decisions have to be taken.

2011 will be a bad year for Punjab. The current government will not be interested in the state because elections are due in 14 months. They will look at an exit strategy.

We have to carefully scrutinise the people and pick only those of integrity. The padayatra has definitely sensitised me about the expectations of the people from the political leadership. What worries me is that we found a majority of the people fed up with the present system. They are silent. Their silence is worrisome now.

The author is Member of Parliament for Anandpur Sahib, Punjab.

[Courtesy: Tehelka]

January 16, 2011

[tonyhp32]

This is a political stunt. This bas*ard Ravneet Singh is the grandson of Beant Singh who killed thousands of Sikh youths.

[Mr Sardar]

drugs are a big issue in punjab simple you could get some people to catch those bringing them in and selling them, cut off the distribution first then rehabilitate.