Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao has said measures were being taken to prevent smuggling of ganja from the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam district to various parts of the country.
The Minister held a meeting with Excise Commissioner P. Lakshmi Narasimham, District Collector Pravin Kumar, ITDA Project Officer Ravi Pattanshetty, Chief Conservator of Forests Rahul Pandey, and Deputy Inspector-General (Visakhapatnam Range) Ch. Srikanth, at the Collectorate here on Saturday.
The image of the fastest growing city in India – Visakhapatnam – would suffer due to the smuggling of ganja from the Agency areas. He said short-term and long-term measures would be initiated to end the menace.
The Excise Commissioner said ganja was being cultivated in 151 villages of eight mandals in Andhra Pradesh. While two of these mandals were in East Godavari, the remaining six were in the Visakhapatnam Agency.
The total list of villages, where ganja was being cultivated, had been prepared and action would be initiated in a fool-proof manner over a period of three years.
The Minister suggested that field-level surveys be made through special drives in the villages to know the ground situation and for preparation of long-term plans.
Later, addressing the media, Mr. Srinivasa Rao said extensive discussions were held in the Cabinet on the cultivation of ganja and its smuggling from the Visakhapatnam Agency.
Measures were being taken to organise a special drive in 10 villages as a pilot project.
