STAFF REPORTER,
Guwahati, June, 26: With the rest of the nation “The International Day against Drugs Abuse and Illicit trafficking” was observed at the Assam Police Headquarters today on June 26 under the aegis of CID, Assam. On this occasion, a meeting with all the stakeholders was held at the Conference Hall of Assam Police Headquarters, Ulubari, Guwahati which was presided over by Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, DGP, Assam. Participating as the Chief Guest on the occasion, Pijush Hazarika, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Water Resources, Information and Public Relations and Parliamentary Affairs lauded the efforts of the Assam Police for their zero tolerance action against Drug Traffickers. He stressed on sensitizing the parents and the society about the ill effects of the use of drugs and said that they can play a pivotal role in curbing use of drugs. He laid stress in creating mass awareness against drugs by involving all stakeholders and said that the Government is keenly working to make the state of Assam Drugs Free. He praised the Assam Police for organizing the event. The Minister also laid stress on drawing up a SOP for regulating the Rehabilitation and De-addiction centers. Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, DGP, Assam in his presidential speech stressed on the need for a multipronged strategy to tackle the drug menace. He requested the Social Justice Department to devise standard guidelines for permitting setting up and running of the de-addiction centers. He called upon the Education and Health Departments to include drug abuse awareness in the academic curriculums. Mahanta said that Assam Police has been working towards supply deduction continuously, now the need of the hour is to focus on demand reduction. Earlier in his welcome Address cum Report ADGP CID, A Y V Krishna, mentioned that, in order to tackle the drug menace there has to be a three pronged strategy namely supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction. He said that a record number of 3,232 cases have been registered under NDPS Act and more than 5,400 drug peddlers / traffickers have been arrested, 388 vehicles used for drug trafficking have been seized, more than 100 kgs. of Heroin, 2,70,000 bottles of Cough Syrup, 39,42,000 nos. of tablets and several other banned narcotic substances have been seized. Cash and Foreign currency worth Rs. 2.80 crores have also been seized from the possession of drug paddlers, 31 bighas of Cannabis cultivation and 648 bighas of Opium cultivation have been destroyed. Worth mentioning that the CID Assam has got an App named "Drugs Free Assam" prepared with the help of NIC which can be downloaded through Google Play Store. This App has been successfully downloaded by citizens and continuous information is pouring in through this channel, the identity of the informant kept confidential. District- wise Nodal Officers have been detailed to immediately act upon the information received through this App. The meeting was also addressed by Niraj Verma, Principal Secretary, Home and Political department ; Avinash P D Joshi, Principal Secretary, Health and FW department, Mukesh Chandra Sahu; Principal Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment and others. The meeting was also graced by the Senior Assam Police officers, officials from Health department, Social Justice and Empowerment, Excise department, Education department, Home Department, FSL, Information & Public Relations, Doctors, Principals, Representatives of various NGOs.
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