Residents of Deeda Sansian village very well know the meaning of the phrase — you can get the monkey off your back but the circus will never leave the town. The hamlet has gained infamy for the fact that every second household is into selling drugs. Interestingly, no one in the area consumes drugs. They just sell the dope, make a profit, buy more and sell again. The Deeda Sansian circus has been going on for decades. In one instance, four generations have been into peddling drugs. Three generations are common. The nearby hamlet of Awankha is Deeda’s first cousin. Here too, the contraband is sold openly. Villagers know the rules of the game. They are secure in the knowledge that if they are caught with a small quantity of drugs, the lax excise laws will come to their rescue. Conversely, if they are caught with a large dose, they are liable to be prosecuted under the stringent NDPS Act. Hence, they always keep a small quantity while the larger one is hidden somewhere on the outskirts. Last week, IG (Border range) Mohnish Chawla decided to take things head-on. He led a team and raided the village. Insiders say a good two hours before the IG was scheduled to arrive, the villagers got a whiff of his visit. By the time the officer stepped into the village, lo and behold, Deeda was as clean as a slate. Not even a gram of dope was found despite the fact that the raids were all encompassing and intense in nature. A peddler claimed that the cops can do whatever they want to but they will continue “to serve society” by selling dope. “We have been in this business for the last 60 years. We do not know any other trade. What will we do if we stop our business,” asked a villager. These people have a strong network of informers. The sense of comradeship among them, too, is quite strong. They keep fighting with each other over the spoils but when they are confronted with an outsider, in this case the cops, they display a strong sense of unity. “I came to Deeda just to see the village, how it looks and to study how generations have been into the drug business. Days later, I ended up as an addict,” said one hooked to drugs earlier. Here, people are loath to go to worship at religious places. They have one God. And his name is Pablo Escobar, the legendary Colombian drug lord, who once said, “I am a decent man. I only export flowers.” In Deeda, there is an elephant in every living room. The problem is they do not want it to leave their place.
Union minister Arjun Ram Mehgwal comes calling
(Contributed by Ravi Dhaliwal)
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