FOUR DIE IN BLAST AT UP SCRAP SHOP
MUZAFFARNAGAR: Four people were killed and four others injured when an explosion ripped through a scrap shop here on Monday, police said. According to police, the incident took place in the scrap shop of one Nawazish in Jaswantpuri locality at about 9.40am when a few workers were trying to open the cover of a scrap item, which suddenly exploded.
After the explosion, one person died on the spot while two others were declared brought dead at the hospital. Another person succumbed to injuries on way to Meerut-based
Higher Medical Centre. “ATS team is at the site. No terror angle has been identified till now,” ATS inspector general Asim Arun said. NEW DELHI: That Punjab has a drug-abuse problem is wellknown. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics, Punjab’s all-india share of crimes under Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act climbed from 9.2% in 2001 to a peak of 42.3% in 2013. Although the numbers have come down gradually since then, the figure was still ten times more than Punjab’s all-india share in Indian Penal Code crimes in 2016.
NCRB statistics also suggest that the law and order machinery in Punjab is trying its best to deal with the problem. Punjab’s share in total convictions under the NDPS also climbed up with its rising share in cases registered under the act. Punjab accounted for more than 30% of total convictions under the NDPS Act in 2015, the latest period for which is data is available (Chart 1).
A report From Addict to Convict: A study of the NDPS Act in Punjab (henceforth report) by legal think-tank Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, which is yet to be released and findings of which have been shared exclusively with HT, questions such a conclusion.
The report, which is based on detailed quantitative analysis of 13,350 cases registered in Special Courts in Punjab under the NDPS Act between 2013 and 2015, is quite damning in its findings and says that “The NDPS Act has failed to meet its twin objectives of deterrence and rehabilitation in Punjab”.
In fact, the report suggests that a 2009 change in the NDPS Act might actually have helped in pushing up quantum of convictions and sentencing in comparison to similar offences (involving pharmaceutical drug abuse) which were conducted in the past.
While opium and poppy husk continue to be the predominant drug choice in Punjab, the government’s crackdown on traditional opium supply routes to deal with the drug problem has led to a proliferation in use of pharmaceutical drugs as well (Chart 2).
The report shows that cases involving use of pharmaceutical drugs had a majority share in total cases of drug abuse in the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Pathankot in the state.