A rally to raise awareness on substance abuse was taken out by the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and the National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers on Monday as part of the nation-wide Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan programme implemented by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
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More than 300 students participated in the rally that commenced at Gandhi Thidal and covered the central parts of the city.
Puducherry is one of the 272 centres identified as the most vulnerable in terms of substance abuse in the country. These vulnerable districts were identified on the basis of findings from the Comprehensive National Survey and the inputs provided by the Narcotics Control Bureau. According to the survey led by the Ministry, there are more than 60 million drug users in the country of which a large number of users are in the age group of 10-17.
The rally organised as a part of raising awareness was flagged off by C. Udaya Kumar, Social Welfare Secretary. M.M. Vinayaraj, Deputy Collector, and P. Padmavathy, Director of Social Welfare, were among those who participated.