The more silent the head of the state remains, the more doubts he creates in people’s mind on whether the allegations on drugs and its supply are true. Ever since a few weeks, drugs haul and drug bust cases around AP’s neighbouring states have been making news. Given that all these are being supplied from Andhra Pradesh, it makes this issue even more serious and imminent to be responded to.
While Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy has been mum on such a crucial issue bothering AP, neighbouring state’s Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao directed the excise and police officials to work in coordination and eliminate drug menace from Telangana. He directed them to get information about the drug peddlers from those consuming ganja and gudumba. At the same time, he also said that vigil should be heightened at the excise and forest department check posts.
Stating that he has information about the increasing availability of drugs in the state, KCR said that officials should try to curb the menace or else, the situation will slip out of control. Drugs will kill our youth, he said. He said that the officials would be able to check the sale of gudumba more easily as it is produced locally.
KCR also said that the state government has released necessary funds for the rehabilitation of drug peddlers to the district collectors. He also asked the officials to take strict action against ganja suppliers so much so that they should fear doing it again. Cases should be framed in a right manner so as to ensure that the guilty are punished, he said.
He directed the officials to create an effective strategy to tackle the menace by forming a committee with higher officials. The sarpanches of villages were asked to inform the excise officials if gudumba was being brewed nearby their villages.
Meanwhile, the Telangana police informed KCR that ganja is mainly cultivated on Andhra-Odisha border and that it is transported into Telangana from Bhadrachalam which then is shifted to Maharashtra and Karnataka. Ganja is also supplied to Chhattisgarh from Andhra Pradesh.
Following this, DGP Mahender Reddy also directed the officials to identify the hotspots of ganja and take strict action against those involved in transporting the contraband. He told KCR that the police would work in coordination with the Vizag and Malkangiri police to check the menace. While such a stringent action and plan has been prepared by Telangana, Andhra Chief Minister is still not responding.
It is time that Jagan takes a cue from his political friend KCR and directs the police to take strict action to tackle the drug menace which is increasing in alarming proportions in the state. This is exactly why the TDP leaders have been raising the same issue and alleging that the YSRCP leaders themselves were involved in drug trafficking. “Without the support of the higher officials, how can huge quantities of heroin and ganja be shifted across the state,” the TDP leaders questioned.
But, YSRCP leaders and ministers, including the CM have been , rubbishing the allegations saying they are baseless. In fact, the YSRCP government and the police have themselves been lackadaisical about tackling with the dog menace apart from giving statements in the media.
If this drug menace continues to spread its tentacles in Andhra Pradesh, then the future of youth is in grave danger, almost destroying lives and livelihoods, just like how Punjab has been in the grip of drugs.
