A proposal to create a new excise range office centered around Kakkanad continues to remain in the back burner despite the place turning into a hotbed of drugs of late.
In fact, a proposal to create range offices in Kakkanad and Kalamassery was made at least five years ago but remains yet to be approved. Financial commitment involved is reportedly stopping the government from acting on the proposal.
Along with its rising status as an Information Technology hub, Kakkanad has also witnessed cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and related criminal activities soaring over the past few years. For instance, the body of a 22-year-old was found wrapped in a bedsheet and shoved into a garbage duct pipe in a 16-floor apartment near Infopark last August. It has since emerged that a dispute involving drugs had led to the crime. Exactly a year before, a huge haul of more than one kilogram of methamphetamine was seized from another apartment in Kakkanad.
“We have noticed particularly high drug traffic in the areas around the international stadium and Kakkanad of late. It is high time that a separate range office catering to Kakkanad is set up for more effective monitoring with additional manpower it may bring in its wake,” said a senior excise officer.
At present, Kakkanad comes under the Ernakulam excise circle office with its areas split between Ernakulam and Tripunithura range offices with very limited staff. As another senior official who had once served in the district sarcastically put it, the excise department’s entire staff strength in the district is just about equivalent to the staff strength of Ernakulam Central police station alone.
Excise has seven circle offices for each of the seven taluks in the district with 15 range offices under them. On an average, a range office has an inspector, an assistant inspector (though not all range offices has that post), three to four preventive officers, nine to 16 civil excise officers and two women civil excise officers. A circle office is composed of a circle inspector, two preventive officers and up to five civil excise officers.
This staff pattern, the officer said, is woefully short of the requirements of the present day with NDPS cases surging.
