HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has directed the Police Department to come up with a proposal to set up the special wing to tackle the menace of drugs in the State.
During a meeting with the officials of Police and Excise departments on Friday, the Chief Minister has reportedly instructed DGP M Mahender Reddy to finalise the modalities in a week’s time and to immediately start operations.
As the operations pick up momentum, manpower can be supplied to the wing in a phased manner. In addition, the wing will be also provided with the latest gadgets and machinery to detect drugs. The wing will work independently and it be solely responsible for all drug cases till the those cases reache a logical conclusion.
The Chief Minister aims to set up the specialised wing on the lines of central agencies like NIA and NCB to get to the root of the drugs menace and wipe it out from Telangana.
“From developing intelligence on drug trafficking, seizure of contraband, registering cases, arrests, taking the case to trial and ensuring logical conclusion, the new wing will look into all the aspects. Assisting units would also be set up at lower levels with separate teams. A suggestion to coordinate with agencies like NCB and DRI has also come up during the meeting,” sources said.
It was also learnt that the CM had opined that people’s representatives from village level as well as MLAs and MPs should join in the awareness programmes to be taken up at different levels. Sources said that the Chief Minister also directed the departments to study and adapt the best practices followed in other countries and other States in the country.
During the meeting, an IG rank official informed that only Punjab and Haryana have such specialised wings to tackle the drugs menace. The CM suggested that selected officers from the departments get trained on the procedures followed by both states and train other personnel in Telangana too.
The Police Department is also planning to make extensive use of social media platforms to conduct awareness programmes on a large scale.