BHOPAL: BJP legislators led by Mandsaur MLA Yashpal Singh Sisodiya raised the issue of ambulances being used for opium and poppy husk smuggling from Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur, Neemuch and Ratlam districts to adjoining Rajasthan and other states.Sisodiya raised the matter through call attention motion during the Zero Hour. “Ambulances are being used in the three MP districts adjoining Rajasthan, to smuggle poppy husk to Rajasthan and other states,” he alleged.
“The Mandsaur district hospital has just two ambulances, while four major private hospitals in the same district too have handful of ambulances. But if you visit the tempo-taxi stands in the town, you can easily spot several vehicles, including Boleros, lined up as ambulances.”Echoing Sisodiya’s concerns, BJP legislator Rajendra Pandey alleged that instead of acting against the big drug smugglers, the police were merely nabbing the poor people, who are small part of the chain.
“There is a nexus between cops and several known people, many of them local politicians, who are fuelling the thriving narcotics trade,” he said.Another BJP leader and Neemuch MLA Dilip Singh Parihar claimed opium and poppy husk smugglers were behind the violent farmers’ movement in the region during June, 2017.
BJP MLA Omprakash Saklecha alleged narcotic smuggling cannot go on without the police patronage, right from the rank of police station in-charge to the ASP. “Will such cops be shifted out on rotational basis?”Former MP minister and BJP MLA Kailash Chawla urged the government to go into the root cause of poppy husk smuggling.
Responding to the BJP legislators’ concerns, home minister Bhupendra Singh assured that a meeting of home and finance departments will soon be convened. Singh had initially stated there weren’t cases of ambulances being used for narcotic smuggling in the state.