With a spurt in the number of red sanders smuggling cases in recent months, an exclusive police station was sanctioned to the red sanders task force and it started functioning three days back.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) S.B.L. Misra formally inaugurated the Andhra Pradesh Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) Police Station building in the premises of the task force office on Kapila Theertham compound on Wednesday. He left a note in the visitors’ book wishing the staff all the best.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police M. Kantha Rao announced his ambitious target to achieve ‘zero smuggling’ with the inauguration of this new facility, which would register and investigate any case having connection with red sanders.
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Chief Conservator of Forest P.V. Chalapathi Rao, Divisional Forest Officer T.V. Subba Reddy, Superintendent of Police R. Jayalakshmi and Deputy Conservator of Forest B.N.N. Murthy participated.
The police station will directly deal with red sanders-related offences by filing charge sheet and conducting the trial to take the cases to their logical end. Since the task force police station is a joint entity, it functions as per the requirements of the Forest as well as the Police departments.
While Forest officials submit Preliminary Offence Reports for offences detected inside forests, the Police department will file the FIR for smuggling cases happening outside the forests, say, logs seized on highways during transportation.
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