Govt to confiscate the properties of drug traffickers: Chief Minister
Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Governor suggested for more vigilance and sustained efforts in the border areas to check illegal trafficking of drugs. Governor Bandaru Dattatraya, in a function of International day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking, said drug addiction not only affect a person or family, but the entire society and there was urgent need that police administration work more vigorously to eliminate this social evil.
The Governor expressed happiness that the police administration was making all-out efforts to curb this menace and appealed the people to cooperate with the police in campaign against drug addiction. Governor said
“Himachal Pradesh is known as Dev Bhoomi and its culture, lifestyle, ideology is very rich but it is unfortunate that the problem of drug abuse has cropped up severely and if we will not check it immediately, the situation may become worse in the days to come”
Dattatraya appreciated the initiative of the state government for launching Drug Free Himachal App to check illegal trafficking and said that through technology we could change the society. He advised to strengthen intelligence department of police. He also advised to involve non-government organisations in anti-drug awareness campaigns.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that although a large number of cases were registered against drug peddlers, but most of them were from neighbouring States of Punjab and Haryana. Therefore, the foremost priority of the State Government was to share the information about these drug peddlers amongst the neighbouring States.
Jai Ram Thakur said that on his initiative the neighbouring States of Himachal like Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan etc. agreed to frame a joint strategy to curb this social vice which was a threat to the existence of our society.
He said that the drug abuse was universal problem and it should be tackled with a might to save the existence of society. He said that most stringent laws were required to nab the drug peddlers. He said that the property of those involved in drug trafficking would be confiscated.
The Chief Minister said that in Himachal Pradesh Charas or cannabis was one of the major substances used by drug addicts, but now synthetic drugs have emerged as a major area of concern.
Jai Ram Thakur said that long term strategy must be chalked out to engage youth in constructive activities. He said that parents should also keep an eye on abnormal behaviour of their teenage children. He said that a campaign against the drug abuse must be made a mass movement and people’s participation was vital to make any campaign a success. He said that effective sharing mechanism should be developed to share information regarding drug peddling so that the culprits could be nabbed at the earliest. A substance addiction deteriorates an individual’s physical and mental well-being, he added.
Chief Minister announced that Finger Print Bureau would be brought under the control of CID wing of Police department by taking back it from FSL Junga for effectively analyzing the crimes of finger prints.
Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu said that cases of drug abuse and drug trafficking were increasing in fast pace and it needed to be contained to save the society. He said that multi-pronged strategy was required to be implemented to effectively tackle this teething issue. He said that the Finger Print Bureau must be brought into the fold of the State Police as this would help in fast tracking cases of investigation.
