Its vote for drugs in Punjab .The drug addicts, usually has to beg, steal or borrow to get his fix, but for now, a packet is delivered to his home in Punjab – an election “handout”.
” Addicts are loving elections and they are wishing them every month,” the youth are saying. “Normally they have to go out and find a dealer, but at election time it gets delivered to your home for free.”
Even farm labourers who are married with two children, are some o of tens of thousands of addicts in Punjab, which votes on Saturday.
While inducing voters with household appliances, alcohol or cash is widespread in elections, electoral officials say candidates in Punjab try to woo addicts with free drugs.
In the four weeks since the date of this year’s polls was announced at the beginning of January, the commission says more than 2.63 tonnes of drugs, including heroin and opium, have been seized.
The commission says, since the beginning of January, more than 2.63 tonnes of drugs have been seized.
“In 2012, when we conducted the Punjab state elections, we suspected the use of drugs during polls… and found drugs were in fact a very serious issue,” SY Quraishi, the former Chief Election Commissioner said. “In one month alone, we recovered around 55 kilograms of heroin, around 430 kilograms of poppy husk (the raw ingredient of opium) and found almost every psychotropic substance in circulation.”
A government-commissioned survey in 2015 estimated there could be as many as 320,000 “opioid dependent individuals” in the state which has a population of 27 million.
Heroin was the most commonly-used drug, followed by opium which is legally grown in parts of India under government licence for medical use.
