Following a mass public protest, the police have intensified their vigil against suspected drug peddlers within Payyoli municipality limits. A people's vigilance committee has also been formed to support the police covering abandoned buildings and isolated street corners.
Efforts are under way to install additional closed circuit television cameras in public places to improve surveillance. Many local residents and traders have expressed their willingness to set up remote surveillance measures to monitor miscreants.
Night patrol squads
As part of improving the night surveillance, the local action committee will be forming its own night patrol squads to cover the city and other vulnerable residential areas. There will be efforts to shut shops engaged in secretly selling banned pan masala and tobacco products, they said.
According to the members of the local action committee, the police had been ignoring their complaints for months without conducting any flash inspection or taking into custody suspected carriers. The alleged laxity had been encouraging many to continue the business and make isolated areas safe havens for their trade, they claimed.
“The bus stand premises and some of the unoccupied shops are mostly the meeting points of drug addicts and carriers. We resorted to an open street protest recently as the police failed to come up with quick action,” said a local action committee member from Payyoli.
Some of the local traders said the beach road was also a haunt of drug addicts and suppliers. There were even occasions when such persons turned aggressive on local people who questioned their activities, they said.
Meanwhile, police sources from Payyoli station said there were many incidents in which police squads exposed the operation of drug carriers. “Local squads were closely associated with the District Anti-Narcotic Special Action Force to monitor the suspected chain of drug carriers and their agents. Those arrested in other parts of the district were also involved in various cases in Payyoli,” they said.
