Action against drug menace: CM Mann to reward three best performing districts every month

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will reward three districts every month for action against the drug menace, a senior police official said on Monday.

Addressing the media here, Inspector General of Police Sukhchain Singh Gill said they arrested 508 drug smugglers or suppliers after registering 389 FIRs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act across the state in the past one week.

He said police also recovered 8.37 of kg heroin, 32.28 kg of opium, 53.2 kg of ganja and 140 quintals of poppy husk besides Rs 11.73 lakh in cash.

The development came after police carried out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas. ''According to the size of the district and the recovery made, three highly performing districts will be announced,'' said Gill, adding that the CM will reward them.

Parameters including size of the district, number of police stations there, population, whether the district is located near the border or far from the border and its demographic profile will be considered, the IG said.

Sharing police action in the past one week, Gill said over 7.93 lakh tablets, capsules and injections of pharma opioids were recovered from across the state.

The pharma opioids included 6.82 lakh intoxicant tablets, 17,169 injectable narcotics, 85,442 intoxicant capsules and 8,648 vials of intoxicant syrup, he said.

The recovery comes after the Fatehgarh Sahib police busted a pharmaceutical drug cartel after making a big seizure of over 7 lakh tablets, capsules and injections of pharma opioids during a raid at an illegal storage godown in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, Gill said.

He said thorough investigations into the previous case, wherein police arrested two people after recovering mere 175 injections of Buprenorphine and 175 vials of Avil. helped the Fatehgarh Sahib police to nab the main supplier.

On trends in drug smuggling, Gill said using emergency vehicles like ambulances for drug smuggling raised serious concerns.

The Mohali police on Sunday arrested three people after recovering 8 kg of opium concealed in a pillow placed under the head of a fake patient lying in an ambulance during a special checking on the Ambala-Chandigarh highway near Dapper village.

The IG said SSPs have been asked to conduct meetings with hospitals and NGOs providing ambulance services to get the list of genuine ambulances so that safe passage could be provided to patients while keeping a vigil on the anti-social elements.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)