Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh)/New Delhi: The building that’s now the district opium office in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, used to be a jail once. In 1922, the long barracks with their stone walls and rugged floors were converted into an afeem godaam—opium warehouse—where farmers came with legally harvested opium that was weighed and checked for quality.

Engraved in yellow stone at the entrance to the building is a slice of history: “Opium Cultivation Office, Gwalior Government, 1922”.

Close to a century later, thousands of farmers in Mandsaur district are still growing the narcotic herb under strict government supervision. And the opium office, with its mandate of enforcing stringent laws around poppy cultivation, continues to symbolize confinement for farmers like Amrit Ram Patidar, who refers to opium farming as “ghulami ki kheti” (a slave’s crop). They live with the fear that the magnificent white poppy fields that bloom every winter could result in their being marked as criminals—as Patidar learnt on the morning of 13 June....Read more

Source web page:Livemint.com