Rs 6,450 crore drug haul and deadly accidents, Gujarat saw it all in 2024

Ahmedabad: For Gujarat, 2024 turned out to be a year of drug hauls and deadly accidents, with security agencies seizing Rs 6,450 crore drugs, a game zone fire in Rajkot claiming 28 lives and a dozen children drowning in a boat capsize in Vadodara.

The total drug haul in the state during the year was 4,862 kg which included charas, mephedrone (MD drug), cocaine and hashish.

Three persons lost their lives after a Coast Guard helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea off the coast of Porbandar in September.

The year began with the boat accident in Vadodara in January, in which 14 people, 12 of them school children, lost their lives, while in May, 28 people, most of them youngsters, were killed in a fire at a game zone in Rajkot.

These tragedies revealed how business operators cut corners, did not have safety equipment in place and slipped under the radar of the authorities.

The children and two teachers died after their boat overturned in Harni Lake on the outskirts of Vadodara city during a school picnic on January 18.

A probe later revealed that an inexperienced firm had received the contract for boating activities at the lake and that the boat involved in the accident was old and unsafe. The victims were not provided life jackets, and no lifeguards were at the water body.

In another deadly incident, a fire at TRP Game Zone in Rajkot on May 25 claimed 28 lives, the majority of them youngsters, on a weekend during the summer holidays. The amusement area was in temporary structures with tin roofs and two floors.

The premises did not have enough fire extinguishers and emergency exits. Shockingly, the structure also did not have a fire NOC and building use approvals from the authorities.

These lapses raised questions about how the authorities allowed the establishment to function despite knowing it violated all state rules and the Gujarat High Court’s directive on fire safety.

Citizens staged protests, demanding accountability, and the Gujarat High Court took a tough stand against the state government.

Three crew members went missing after their Coast Guard helicopter crashed into the Arabian during a rescue operation in September. Their bodies were recovered later.

The police and anti-narcotics agencies remained on their toes this year with five big drug hauls, most of them in the Arabian Sea.

In February, more than 3,300 kg of narcotics were seized from a boat in a joint operation by security agencies. A month later, on March 13, a seizure of 60 kg of methamphetamine worth Rs 420 crore was made off the coast of Porbandar. In August, authorities uncovered a massive mephedrone manufacturing operation in Bharuch and Thane, seizing 800 kg of the drug, valued at Rs 831 crore.

Later, in October, a staggering Rs 1,814 crore worth of drugs and manufacturing materials were seized from a factory in Madhya Pradesh, and in November, about 700 kg of drugs were seized off the coast of Porbandar.

On the political front, the BJP’s total domination in all 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat ended after the Congress bagged one seat in the general elections held in April-May.

The saffron party lost the Banaskantha seat to the Congress after an intense campaign and a series of defections in the run-up to the elections. The ruling party had retained all 26 seats in 2014 and 2019 and clinched a record 156 out of 182 seats in the 2022 state assembly elections.

Before the elections, four MLAs, including three from the Congress and an independent, a Rajya Sabha MP from the Congress, resigned from their posts and joined the BJP.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra, which passed briefly through the state before the general elections, did little to dent the BJP bastion, while the BJP’s campaign was marred by former Union minister Purshottam Rupala's remarks about the Rajput community.

2024 also brought to the fore a scam in the healthcare sector that shook people’s trust in the essential service.

In November, the Khyati Hospital in Ahmedabad was found performing unnecessary angioplasties on healthy patients to get monetary benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY).

The deaths of two persons following the procedure revealed the extent of the medical malpractice.

The education sector also had its challenges this year with a student’s suicide at a premier management institute and the assault on students from foreign countries at Gujarat University.

In September, a student of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) committed suicide allegedly due to the stress of organising an event on the campus, while in March, tensions escalated when students from foreign countries were assaulted by a group at Gujarat University’s hostel in the city for offering namaz, sparking controversy.

Gujarat also hosted international dignitaries this year, with visits from UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Spanish President Pedro Sanchez.

The UAE president attended the Vibrant Gujarat summit in January and held a roadshow and bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In October, Sanchez inaugurated the Tata Advanced System Limited (TASL)-Airbus facility in Vadodara, which will manufacture C-295 military aircraft in India.

The Tata-Airbus facility is the first private sector final assembly line for military aircraft in the country.

The state signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) for 41,299 projects with investment proposals worth Rs 26.33 lakh crore at the 10th biannual Vibrant Gujarat summit in January.