When Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said at the start of his Budget speech that the finance furnishes the most trustworthy interpreter of a government’s doing, one presumed that financial memorandum presented by him before the Vidhan Sabha would take cognizance of serious socio-economic issues that are wreaking havoc in the state.

His quote “our resources are exiguous, but we have manfully striven to meet our obligations and the course of our financial administration clearly demonstrates the most zealous care for the best interest of the Punjab,” however, remained unsubstantiated in the proposals and actions he wanted to be taken during the year for augmenting growth, affluence and well-being of the people of the state.

The Budget, though an annual ritual, should not be an exercise only to reflect the state of finances of a province but should also reflect the socio-economic fabric of society. Human resources should find a major role in the overall development of the state and in case this sector has been rendered less useful or useless, causes should not be left unattended.

Intriguingly, none of the major causes of unnatural human fatalities — addiction, especially of drugs, and road accidents — were considered important enough to be mentioned either in the financial memorandum or the detailed budgetary proposals.

Not only these serious issues have evaded the attention of the State planners, the legislators too have not raised them. Except for an Independent, Charanjit Singh Channi, making a mention of the problem of drug addiction in the state during the debate on the Appropriation Bill, no one else even mentioned the problem.

Drug addiction has emerged as the single largest cause of unnatural deaths in the state followed by deaths in road accidents. There are many areas in all three regions — Majha, Malwa and the Doaba — that are afflicted with this problem. The police and law enforcement agencies admit that drug trafficking is a statewide problem.

A recent study conducted by the anti-narcotic task force of the Punjab police made startling revelations. It says that the State police recovered 3.73-lakh kg of poppy husk, 1,944 kg of opium, 142 kg of smack and 472 kg of heroin in last four years.

Sangrur and Bathinda are far ahead of other towns in the recovery of poppy husk and bhukki. In neighbouring Rajasthan, there are legalised vends where bhukki and poppy husk are sold.

Besides, there are hundreds of chemist shops, both in the urban and rural areas, that sell allopathic formulations that are used as addictives by youth. The mushrooming of chemist shops may have been worrying social scientists but not the State that is keen on raising its VAT collections.

Hundreds of families have been shattered because of the drug menace. Since it is an all-cash business, its size is proportionately higher than major revenue-generating departments of the State.

Though some non government organisations have been trying to create awareness, besides running de-addiction centres, their efforts appear to be addressing just a fragment of the huge problem facing the State where studies conducted fromtime to time indicate that 56 to 79 per cent of the population is addicted to addictions, including alcohol. Drugs alone account for over 50 per cent addicts in the State.

Though finance and economic experts may not take cognizance of this rapidly growing and flourishing menace, it has emerged as a major drain on the economy. Besides, the growing incidence of domestic violence, breaking of families an increasing number of first timers in heinous and dreadful crime have been putting additional pressure on the law and order agencies, besides damaging the social fabric of the society.

In his first Budget speech in 2007, Manpreet Badal had proposed de-addiction centres in all civil hospitals besides a state-level drug dependence treatment centre. But in his subsequent Budgets, there has been unfortunately no mention of any follow-up action or for furthering the fight against drugs.

At places, there are chemist shops though there is no doctor in the immediate vicinity. How come these chemist shops are flourishing in villages and smaller towns without any prescribing doctor closeby?

Interestingly, the Shiromani Akali Dal in its election manifesto for the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections had specifically mentioned that “special centres to fight drug addiction in the State would be set up and a social awareness campaign launched. But the promise has remained in manifesto only.

The anti-narcotics task force needs funds not only to create awareness but also to treat those who have been into it.

Though Manpreet Badal tried to strike an emotional chord by paying tributes to his predecessor, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, who was killed in a dastardly road mishap less than four months ago, yet it did not induce him to raise concern and seek support of the House in cutting road fatalities. Punjab has been losing nearly 3000 lives a year on its roads.

Shocking as it may sound, the place where Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Cooperation Minister of the State and general secretary of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, was killed has been one of the killer stretches of the state that has claimed more than 250 lives in the past four months.

The Jalandhar-Amritsar stretch of National Highway 1 has been another such killer spot. Fatalities are three times the total murders that take place in the State every year. But successive governments have been ignoring road safety to the great detriment of the socio-economy of the State. One road fatality affects a minimum of three families of five members each.

Is not it the responsibility of the State to make road travel safe? Harassing road users with toll tax barriers dotting the state and national highways is perhaps its only mandate.

A multi-application approach is required to address the problems posed by these two major causes of unnatural deaths and subsequent socio-economic crises in the State. Even if one takes the case of growing incidence of suicide, be it among farmers or even urban areas, the issue needs to redressed clinically as well.

Many social scientists and even economists agree that the states like Punjab are having growing number of psychic wrecks. They identify the phenomenon as depress-flation, inflation-led depression. All such cases need psychic counselling.

While proposing to augment health care facilities in the State, Manpreet Badal would have done well if he had also included in his agenda a plan to start redressing these gigantic social problems — drug addiction, suicides and deaths in road accidents — to save not only valuable human resources but also the scarce financial resources of the State.

Source: The Tribune