Considering the increasing number of students involved in various cases related to substance abuse, the majority of local administrators in Kozhikode district have decided to revamp student protection committees. The existing committees will be reconstituted with parent-teacher association leaders, ward members, anti-liquor campaigners and officials heading community policing schemes.
Efforts are also under way to intensify campaigns against substance abuse by various students’ groups such as Student Police Cadets, Scouts and Guides, National Cadet Corps, and National Service Scheme. The support of Police and Excise officials will also be sought to motivate youngsters.
Kunnamangalam grama panchayat members said they recently created separate groups for high schools and higher secondary schools to intensify vigil. Apart from group activities, the presence of police would be strengthened in various public places such as bus stands where drug addicts and peddlers were suspected of camping to woo youngsters, they said.
Suggestions have also come up from various local bodies to set up more complaint boxes in public places to gather information about drug trafficking. The local police stations are likely to take up the demand covering various schools. The Excise department has set up such boxes in different parts of the city.
A senior member of a newly constituted student protection group in the city said the main aim of the group would be the identification of young drug addicts in schools who reportedly function as agents for large-scale suppliers. “As of now, there is no mechanism in place to check the schools bags of suspected students. We are planning to propose the same as part of attempts to intensify field-level actions,” he said.
