KICKING THE KAANI: Namsai cry from Opium menace

By Shonaam Tabri Dada

Its very bolt from the blue to know that little champagne socialist or the haves are indulged in the illegal cultivation of KAANI (OPIUM) in the villages of Namsai district in Arunachal Pradesh.

Accordingly there are some champagne socialist who make laborers to cultivate opium in the high mountains and make the half share of the entirety amount. In the same way there are many other groups who are only dependent to mon

ey generated by the so called termed as cash crop to opium.

But the concerned local of the district has its own point to curve the opium menace which is prevailing at large. Gaon Burah of Mankao village Niling Manglong has to say that most of the youth along with aged old people are indulged in the illegal cultivation and consumption of Kaani.

“Around 50 percent of the people at district headquarter Namsai, Chowkham, Medo, Mahadevpur and Mankao village are under its shock. The local MLA has less interest to curve out the menace from the root and just pouring funds which are in fact not reaching to the needed family, he said.”

The open sale of Kaani in the Sunday market at Medu is best example which shows the presence of this dodgy substance. Today Kaani is treated as the cash crop of the district where youths are busy in smoking and being lethargic does not indulge in the domestic work and education.

Literally speaking there is no use of providing funds to do away with Kaani burning up as many of the Kaaniyaa (Kaani smokers) starts smoking the next day of various awareness camps. Even you can find some Kaaniyaa resume to smoking after being unconfined from the de-addiction centre.

The concerned department and minister should annihilate all the plantation area and should bring a strict law against the cultivators. Until and unless there is stern action taken to the growers this menace can’t be controlled. Being the head of village beside instruction the very next day they start as usual and when interrupted they complain being harsh, Niling added.

KAANI smoking by the teenagers, youth as well as many older people of Namsai district has been the concern for many years till date. Besides obliteration of the poppy fields by the local administration numerous times it is been cultivated still.

Meanwhile the Ex-Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) C Namchoom from Chowkham told that the consumption and cultivation of Opium has increased in last 20 years. Narcotic department should be established with implementation of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Act implemented at the earliest before it’s too late.   

“To the utter surprise it has also been known that there are few police personals as well as IRBN indulged in the paddling and consumption of Kaani but no one dares to speak about it.”

No doubt government somehow provides Horticulture tools and requirement to the locals to make busy with proper channel to overcome opium menace but people are more moved towards instant money making. It has also been known that Kaani from the other state like Punjab are been imported to the state. There is no alternative but to arrest the cultivators and paddlers and punish them with the strict law, Namchoom added.

Some students when asked about youth indulging in smoking and cultivation, they have to say that many of the students after completion of study have no option but to choose it. Because there is no sufficient job opportunity, various government schemes and works are pre occupied by big shots leaving them unemployed and no option but to make short cut money out of Opium.

Namsai Women Welfare Society (NWWS) president Shristhi Maio said that awareness camp and de-addiction centre does not make much impact on minimizing the menace as there are many sources where the Kaani is availed in the market.

The Kaaniyaa and the paddlers are arrested but they are being released in bail in the very next couple of days. They should be not granted bail and should be left behind bars at least for a month so that they fear of doing so again, she said.

Meanwhile Sotai Kri, a senior citizen of the area asked all the well wisher, minister, bureaucrats and commoners of the district to make a law which can govern the flow and cultivation of paddlers and Opium. To fight against the cultivators of opium and make the Namsai drug free district.     

The same is the sad story told by many seniors of the Namsai district when personally approached and interviewed that until and unless there is tough law to check the cultivators and paddlers the menace can’t be stopped.

It is very well quoted by Jean Cocteau “Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train, racing towards death. To smoke opium is to get off the train while is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.”