CHANDIGARH: Director General of Police, Punjab, Gaurav Yadav has set May 31 deadline to eradicate the drug menace from the state.
He has issued a stern ultimatum to the police commissioners and district police chiefs to bring down the availability of drugs in the streets. He also said that all officers will be accountable if they fail to do so.
An hour-long high-level meeting was chaired with all the Range Inspector Generals of Police, Deputy Inspector Generals, Commissioners of Police, Senior Superintendents of Police and accompanied by Special DGP Internal Security RN Dhoke, ADGP Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) Nilabh Kishore and ADGP Law and Order Naresh Arora, to make the ongoing action plan to wipe out drugs from the state foolproof in toto.
"We have taken several important decisions during the meeting, including fixing the accountability of the officers. Every officer, including CPs, SSPs, DSPs and SHOs will be held responsible and accountable in their own respective areas for failing to wipe out drugs from the streets," said Yadav.
He also said the performance of all the officers will be assessed with the help of professional parameters, intelligence and feedback from the public after May 31.
"After the survey, officers who did good work will be rewarded, while punishments will be given to the officers found deficient,’’ he said.
Yadav, however, clarified that the focus of the police is not a figure based targets, but to completely break the supply chains to make drugs unavailable across the state.
CPs and SSPs have already been directed to trace the linkages of the cases being registered under the NDPS act and also to take the cases to logical conclusion by exposing complete networks, he added.
Pertinently, the meeting took place in two parts— with the review of district wise performance including number of FIRs registered, achievements and gaps were discussed with the respective Range IGPs, DIGs, CPs and SSPs in first part, while, in second part, field officers were asked to present their plan to eradicate drugs from their respective districts by May 31.
Yadav said that, during the meeting, officers have also discussed various mechanisms and techniques to go after big fish and how to track them by leveraging the use of technology as a force multiplier.
“With criminals using cut-out techniques and virtual numbers to evade arrest, we have devised a foolproof strategy to catch such criminals using technical and human intelligence,” he added.
He said that Punjab Police has been giving special focus on the 755 identified drug hotspots with repeated targeted and effective CASO operations to ensure denial of access to drugs in these vulnerable areas.