The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime’s risk assessment survey had pointed out that opium production was likely to see a rise owing to withdrawal of foreign security forces by 2014.

Twelve Afghan provinces out of over 30 were expected to show a rise in opium cultivation this year owing to various reasons, including remunerative price of opium, the report said.

Afghanistan already produces 90 per cent of the world’s opium from which heroin is derived. Its biggest share is smuggled to European and Central Asian countries, including Russia, Iran, Pakistan and India.

The infamous Golden Crescent that includes three nations, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, is Asia’s principal area of illicit opium production. The mountainous regions of these three countries define the crescent. In 1991, Afghanistan earned the dubious distinction of being the world’s primary opium producer with a yield of 1,782 tonnes which was much more than South-East Asia’s Golden Triangle.

The victory, besides consolidating the SAD hold over rural areas, is expected to help it in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. The party is likely to get a fillip in the Malwa region with the demolition of the Congress base among the ‘jat’ peasantry made during the stint of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.

While SAD has been practicing micro-management down to the village level for the last seven years, demoralisation in Congress ranks after the 2012 Assembly election outcome further helped its cause. The Congress has been unable to get its house in order and even its structure at the grassroot level is in a shambles. It is also facing erosion in its cadre, which is the single most important reason for the drubbing.

Sources said earlier there were always two groups in a village and the Congress got the vote of one group by default. The Akalis have now gone in for adjusting rival groups in most villages by re-distributing posts, resulting in today’s whitewash.

Congress sources themselves admit the election will have a bearing on the stature of party president Partap Singh Bajwa. The PCC chief campaigned vigorously and even knit together a broad alliance by arriving at a seat adjustment with the Peoples Party of Punjab (PPP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

This however did not have the desired impact. Bajwa was not helped by the fact that senior leaders, including Capt Amarinder Singh, kept away from the polls.

Bajwa loyalists, however, claim that had it not been for the PCC president, the situation could have been worse. They say the aggressive stand taken by Bajwa encouraged Congressmen to take on the Akalis.

Manpreet said we demand inquiry from a sitting judge of Punjab and Haryana court so that truth must come up before masses. He said as we have no faith in Punjab election commission we want high court judge to probe all the misuse of power. Leaders of CPI, CPI(M), SAD(Longowal), the constituents of Sanjha Morha also addressed the dharna apart from satirist Bhagwant Mann. Bhagwant Mann was at his best while addressing the people.

Manpreet said Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has ruled Punjab for so long and now what message his government wants to give to Punjab people by forcibly winning the election. He also equated deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal with a police constable who uses all his might at his will. He added that SAD candidates have won with thin majority despite all these acts. CPI leader Joginder Dayal was also present.

Satirist Bhagwant Mann targeted Badal family in his address and said “Parkash Singh Badal has called the elections a victory of democracy but failed to take part in democracy by not casting his vote. “Akalis are killing on an average one ASI per month. He also said “the parameters to get jobs in Punjab have changed. Now one get job if someone from family is assaulted or killed either by Akalis or by the government machinery. Now the government wants to get sisters assaulted to claim jobs or the youth ask their parents to get killed by Akalis so that they could get jobs in compensation”.

Continuing its winning streak, the SAD once again banked on the plank of development to woo the electorate. The SAD leaders harped on the development works carried out by the SAD-led government in the state over the last six years. The SAD campaign in the region was led by Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia who held several public meetings in the last leg of the campaign.

The SAD performed exceptionally well in his home turf Majitha by winning all two zila parishad seats and all 29 block samiti seats, wiping out the Congress entirely from the assembly constituency. Though the Congress was at the receiving end of a couple of violent incidents in the run-up to the elections, it could not convert the issue into electoral gains.

Interestingly, the official SAD candidates faced defeat at the hands of various Independent candidates supported by the SAD leaders themselves, particularly in Tarn Taran district which witnessed infighting in the ruling party.

Tarn Taran MLA Harmeet Singh Sandhu had fielded his own candidates against the party’s official nominees who were supported by SAD leader Alwinderpal Singh Pakhoke, who is the nephew of SAD stalwart Ranjit Singh Brahmpura. Similarly in Chabhal seat, an Independent candidate supported by Punjab Minister Adesh Partap Singh Kairon defeated the official party candidate.

The leaders also raised the Khalistan (separate Sikh homeland) demand at the meeting, Mann said. The SAD (Amritsar) chief said he “still supports the Khalistan movement and the Sikh community abroad also favours it.”

The Sikh leaders at the meeting discussed the strategy for the coming Parliamentary elections, Mann said.

The former Chief Minister blasted the police theory on the assault on Congress MLA from Guruharsahai Rana Gurjit Sodhi and his personal assistant. “The police is shamelessly trying to cover up when everything is only too obvious”.

Debunking the police claims of peaceful elections, Capt Amarinder said if that was so, newspapers and television channels showing violence, particularly in the Chief Minister’s constituency, were lying.

“It is disgustingly shameful on the part of DGP Saini to parrot what he has been preached by his political bosses,” he said. Rather, the police should apologise to the people for the poll violence, he said.

“The very claim of the police that it had controlled everything up to the booth level is an admission that the elections were rigged and that is what precisely the Congress has been saying,” said Amarinder.

The 27-year-old, who made her debut with Hindi movie, Luck, will have two releases on June 19, D-Day and Ramaiya Vasta Vaiya.

“It is good it just so happened,” she said about the simultaneous release of her two films and added: “I am happy that both are polar opposite films. For me, both the characters are so different from each other. In a weird way, it is nice that both the films are coming out on the same day. It just shows the range,” she said.

The actress, who has featured in more than half-a-dozen films so far, including Telugu movie, Anaganaga O Dheerudu, finds her journey unconventional.

“It’s been a kind of different journey. It is not a conventional journey of a star. I have never been a conventional person. My journey has taught me a lot. There has been success and failure, they both taught me a lot. It’s my journey and hopefully, will return more colours.”

Of late, successful love stories have come to depict our practical lives, be it Hum Tum or Love Aaj Kal. Films have become more practical and less romantic in the mushy sense of the word. Bollywood looked like a grown up woman – one who had had her share of chocolates and flowers in her teens but was looking for more of compatibility than just those tokens.

With the experimental new-wave cinema in vogue, Bollywood love story somehow lost a bit of its sheen, however, with movies like Aashiqui 2 and Chashme Buddoor, we wonder if mushy love is back.

Aashiqui 2 came as a surprise at the box office churning over Rs. 70 crore in a month. It earned Rs. 36 crore in the first week of its release and maintained a decent earning with Rs. 17 crore, Rs. 13 crore and Rs. 4.25 crore in the second, third and fourth weeks respectively.

The film was a sequel from Bhatt camp of the 90s superhit movie Aashiqui, starring Rahul Roy and Anu Agrawal. (Figures courtesy: Twitter/Taran Adarsh) Aashiqui 2 is about the life and love of a famous singer who finds his soul mate in a poor, yet skilled girl.

The success of Chashme Baddoor at the box office brought love story in style again with a gross Rs. 39 crore earning on the box office in two weeks. (Figures courtesy: Boxofficeindia.com) The film was a remake of Sai Paranjape’s Chashme Buddoor (1981). This was a typical David Dhawan film with loads of humour.

There are a few movies lined up for release this year which are likely to carry on the newly-reborn legacy of the romance. Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone starrer Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani that releases on May 31 has been trying to cash-in on the chemistry of the lead actors.

With Ranbir Kapoor portraying the typical bad boy, as we see in the teasers of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, the movie promises some more dose of romance in theatres.

Dhanush is known for his mushy lover boy roles in Tamil cinema. His Bollywood debut Raanjhanaa, too seems to aim at cashing in on his image. Sonam Kapoor and Dhanush play childhood lovers in the movie that is slated for release on June 21.

Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha starrer Lootera is set Kolkata of early 1950s. The trailer gives us hope the movie will turn out to be one mushy, romantic story. The actor in an interview to Indian Express recently said, “Lootera is delicate and fragile, poetic and lyrical.” That does evoke Bollywood of yore.

Looking at her latest Cannes appearance in a heavily zari embellished dress that looks disturbingly like a tea cosy, one can safely suggest her a change of wardrobe without being judged for questioning the diva’s fashion sense.