In shadow of losses amid Ganganagar drug crisis, villagers flag poll players’ apathy, decry lip service

Ajami Devi, a 58-year-old resident of Kaliyan village near Sri Ganganagar city, has tears in her eyes when she speaks about her 19-year-old nephew, a drug addict who died due to drug overdose. This is a familiar story in hundreds of villages in Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh districts where the rising drug menace has proved disastrous for a legion of such youths and their farmer families.

Ajami says half of the village youths are involved in taking some kind of drugs which has, she adds, resulted in over 50 deaths so far. “Earlier, it was just alcohol abuse but in the last 10 years various forms of drugs have become available in the village easily. Addicts can get any drugs, syringes or medicinal drugs in the village,” she says.

Sukhvir Singh, a resident of Kaliyan village, echoes Ajami’s concerns, adding that medicinal tablets used as drugs are also sold in the village pharmacies. “In this small village there are 8 medical shops where different medicines used for drugs are sold. Most of the youths, aged between 15 years and 35 years, are losing themselves to drugs and we have complained many times to the authorities but no one helps. We have questioned politicians in election rallies who just give assurances,” he says.

Ganganagar is among Rajasthan’s 12 Lok Sabha seats going to polls on April 19, where the issue of drug abuse among youths has been raised by various contenders in their campaigns, which locals however dismiss as just “lip service”.

The Ganganagar parliamentary constituency comprises Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh districts, which border Punjab state as well as Pakistan. The two districts are known as “mini-Punjab of Rajasthan” because of the sizeable population of Punjabis and the influence of the Punjabi