In a first, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has convened a meeting of top officials, including all district collectors and superintendents of police, with an exclusive agenda to eradicate drug menace in the State. The focus of the conference slated for August 10 would be to devise strategies to completely eliminate drug abuse by involving all stakeholders, particularly the youth, students and educational institutions. The Chief Secretary, Director-General of Police/Head of Police Force, all Police Commissioners, Zonal IGPs, Range DIGs will also be part of the brainstorming to achieve a drug-free Tamil Nadu. According to police sources, the conference would be open to the participants to throw up ideas for effective means to achieve the goal. Additional Director-General of Police, Crime, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal said discussions would be followed up by the largest-ever awareness programme on August 11. Tamil Nadu would be creating a world record with the Chief Minister taking the lead and administering a pledge against drug abuse to a few lakhs of students across the State. The event is being organised by the Narcotics Intelligence Bureau CID of the Tamil Nadu police in association with the School Education Department, Higher Education Department, and others. “This is the first time that a conference of Collectors and SPs is being convened to exclusively discuss eradication of drugs. In the last one year, the State government has been emphasising on the need for preventing college/school students from getting addicted to drugs. The ‘Drive Against Drugs’ and ‘Operation Ganja’ have been successful initiatives of the police which helped in the seizure of huge quantities of the contraband and arrest of suspects,” a senior police officer said on Saturday. The drive against drugs got an impetus with the recent merger of the Prohibition and NIBCID, which were functioning as independent units under the Additional Director-General of Police, Crime. Now the Prohibition Enforcement Wing officials in all districts are also being deployed in the operations against procurement, storage and distribution of ganja and other drugs. As part of the tough legal action being taken against drug peddlers, the State police are attaching their movable/immovable properties in the case. Drug law-enforcement officials are working in close coordination with their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh from where a majority of the ganja was being cultivated or procured and smuggled into Tamil Nadu, police sources added.
