Transit route. And the toll has been heavy and so has been the frequency of drugs seizure. Worrying it is and making it all that more worrying is the fact that so far no big fish seems to have been netted. Heroin and now World is Yours (WY) tablets have certainly taken a big toll and a look through the daily newspapers published from Imphal will be more than enough to know the amount of drugs that are seized almost on a daily basis, particularly along the highway that connects Imphal and Moreh. The Assam Rifles post opened at Khudengthabi on this said route is definitely doing a good job and huge quantities of drugs have been seized at this check post. The more the drugs are seized along this highway, the more it is clear that there must be much more which escape detection and in almost all the cases the seizures have been effected following tip offs to the security forces. Many have been arrested, but so far no big names have been established. It should be more than clear that all those arrested are small time pushers, who have been tasked with the job of transporting the drugs to Imphal and beyond and surely no small time pusher will have the resources to even attempt to smuggle drugs that run into crores of rupees. It was on September 17, that NAB personnel and Assam Rifles personnel managed to seize heroin and WY tablets worth Rs 70 crore from Bongyang village in Tengnoupal district. Rs 70 crore is a huge amount by any standard and it is more than clear that such a huge contraband of drugs costing crores in the market would surely involve the hands of people who are well off and well connected.
It was only last month that a drug manufacturing unit was busted at Thoubal district and surely the said unit could not have been established overnight. It would have needed patronage from the well placed and those with the right connection. A month or so ago it was that the unit was busted, and surely the case could not have ended with the act of busting the drug manufacturing unit. What progress has the investigation made, is the question that the public would surely want to know. Silence may be the right option for the law enforcing agencies at the moment for letting out the status of the investigation at this point may just be premature, but surely it is incumbent on the part of the Government to let the public know the status of the case, at a suitable time. True, the departments concerned invite media persons when seized items such as drugs and alcohol are consigned to flames, but surely the frequency in which drugs are seized would warrant such instances to be held more often. That Manipur lies near the infamous Golden Triangle is known to all. It is also known that Manipur is a transit route for the drugs to go to the international market. And all this should surely tell the story of the involvement of big fishes. Unfortunately so far that no big names have been held or busted. This is where it becomes important for the Government to come to the point that arresting the pushers will not be addressing the scourge of drug smuggling. Small time drug pushers are merely the symptoms of the larger malaise and the real disease are the big, moneyed, influential folks who finance the whole operation. This is where many questions are yet to be answered.