Excise Commissioner Rishi Raj Singh will inaugurate Disha-2017, an anti-drug awareness campaign of the Koodaranhi grama panchayat, on Tuesday.
The project, being launched to help the village achieve drug-free status, will encourage de-addiction programmes and raids against hooch dens. The panchayat has rolled out the campaign after it noticed an increase in liquor consumption and use of tranquillizers among students. Preliminary studies conducted by the local body in various areas revealed that the parents of such students too were addicted to drugs for long.
Disha will make use of the service of its local vigilance committees in the panchayat. The committees will be responsible for alerting local body administrators on illicit liquor sales and the distribution of sedative substances.
Project coordinators said the support of the Excise Department under its Vimukti project would strengthen the campaign.
Koodaranhi panchayat vice president V.A. Nazeer said the year-long programme would extend support to financially backward persons to attend de-addiction programmes.
Counselling
“Home visits and counselling service to the needy will also be offered under the scheme,” he added. The panchayat authorities are confident about winning the active participation of all rural Kudumbasree workers in the initiative. The women entrepreneurs will play an active role in the vigilance committees, which will have workers of various voluntary organisations and religious groups as participants.
Mr. Nazeer said the panchayat had earmarked ₹1.5 lakh for the project. Arrangements were in place to carry out innovative awareness campaigns in all wards of the panchayat, besides seminars, cultural programmes and circulation of pamphlets, he added.
The panchayat authorities said Disha would have a positive impact on tribal hamlets in the panchayat limits.
