BELAGAVI: Asserting that the Congress government is serious on curbing drug menace to make Karnataka a drug-free state, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara has said that an Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) has been set up in the state.
“Probably, Karnataka is the only state in the country to constitute such a task force whose job is not only to curb supply of drugs, arrest the drug peddlers, but also to hold awareness programmes in schools and the colleges to educate the youth about the ill-effects of drug abuse on their health and careers,” Dr Parameshwara said, while replying to a question raised by MLC Abdul Jabbar (Congress) in the Council on Thursday.
Dr Parameshwara said that the Home Department has selected some 56 “efficient” officers for the job. He said that FIRs have been filed even against the police personnel found to be supporting drug peddlers.
The Home Minister claimed that recently in Bengaluru, the members of the Task Force visited 1000 educational institutions in one day to educate people about drugs and their adverse impact on their lives.
Dr Parameshwara regretted that many students from African countries, who arrived in India, are working as drug peddlers and supplying drugs to youth.
“We have no idea how these people are getting drugs to supply here. But we are indeed keeping a strong vigil over their movements,” he said.
Mentioning difficulty in taking legal action against them, the Minister said normally, the procedure is that the case should be filed against such drug peddlers.
“Interestingly, these people actually want a case to be filed against them. This way, they will remain in India as they cannot be deported until the case is cleared. Even the deportation process is very complex as several permissions need to be obtained from the embassies of their nations. Even after that, we have so far deported around 300 such people to their respective nations”, the minister said.
He said that huge quantities of drugs are being seized regularly and recently over 200 kg of drugs worth crores have been burnt.
He further said that in order to maintain law and order in the coastal region, the government has constituted a Special Action Force by deploying around 350 police personnel to prevent criminal activities.