JOIN USAssam under serious grip of drug abuse like Punjab: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
Assam is under serious grip of illicit drug abuse with many families being destroyed like in Punjab, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the State Assembly on Wednesday.
Sarma said many startling facts about drug abuse and trafficking came to light during the ongoing operation against drugs which was launched soon after he took charge as chief minister in May.
"We heard about the serious problem of drug abuse in Punjab. But our anti-drugs operation in the past two months have revealed that our state is also under serious grip of such drugs. Earlier, Assam used to be a transit route to carry the drugs being pumped in from Myanmar via Manipur and Nagaland. But we have stumbled on startling facts about large-scale local consumption like in Punjab. Many young boys are consuming drugs like heroin, psychotropic substance like Yaba tablets and All is Yours tablets, which were found to be in use among cadres of militant groups to carry on their activities continuously for days without any sleep," Sarma told the ongoing Budget session of the Assembly while replying to the issue raised by AGP MLA, Pradip Hazarika.
Sarma said 27 kg of heroin has been seized in the past two months while 12,823 kg of cannabis has also been recovered since then. The police also recovered 42 kg of opium and 78,000 bottles of cough syrup, which are used as drugs and 13.63 lakh tablets (psychotropic substance) so far. A total of 1,897 persons (both kingpin and peddlers) has been arrested in 1,121 cases registered since May.
"The racket of the drug peddlers is so deep that some are also posing as food delivery boys and are delivering the drugs to the doorstep of the users. Since the food delivery service has been exempted from the lockdown or curfew imposed to contain Covid, many peddlers are posing as food delivery boys to deliver drugs in Guwahati," Sarma said.
Sarma said one drug trader has died and seven were injured in police firing after they either tried to flee or attacked the police personnel during the operation.
"We have decided to adopt zero tolerance policy to check drug use as such substances are destroying lives and families. We have come across families where a son snatched his mother's ornaments or fraudulently withdrawn money of his father to buy drugs. We can not allow such disturbing things to continue," Sarma said. "Drug business worth hundreds of crores is going on in Assam," he said.
The chief minister said the drugs seized in the past two months would be burnt down in public places in Golaghat, Diphu, Nagaon and Hojai district on July 17 and 18 in order to drive home a message about his government's cudgel against illicit drugs. "I will attend all the four functions and I appeal to the MLAs to do so to spread a message to the society," Sarma said.