The Madras High Court has called for details from the police department on the number of pubs and hookah parlours functioning in the State.
It also wants to know the number of raids conducted in such places to prevent juveniles from consuming liquor and smoking hookah, apart from the number of cases registered so far.
Justice N. Kirubakaran had sought the details after pointing out that consumption of alcohol and smoking hookah by juveniles had been widely reported in the media.
He expressed displeasure over the police not having provided details of checks conducted in educational institutions to find out the use of narcotic and psychotropic drugs by students. “Globally acclaimed and elite Indian engineering school IIT-Kanpur is battling a serious drug problem. An internal inquiry conducted jointly by the college authorities and the district administration has revealed that a few hundred students have been actively involved in the consumption of various kind of drugs,” the judge said.
The judge stressed the need to keep a check over the educational institutions in Tamil Nadu too.
Urging college managements to conduct inquiries to find out the use of drugs on their campus, the judge directed the DGP to issue a circular to all colleges in the State with a request to find out if substance abuse was prevalent on their campus.
