Jharkhand Police launches 'Chocolate War' to check opium cultivation in state's rural pockets

Under the initiative, police personnel visit weekly village markets and distribute chocolates in wrappers containing information about the legal repercussions of opium cultivation.
According to police warnings are written on chocolate wrappeer saying: "Cultivation of opium is a legal offence, if found involved, one will be arrested; will get punishment up to 10 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment. Properties will also be confiscated under the NDPS Act."
According to police warnings are written on chocolate wrappeer saying: "Cultivation of opium is a legal offence, if found involved, one will be arrested; will get punishment up to 10 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment. Properties will also be confiscated under the NDPS Act."(Photo| Special arrangement)
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RANCHI: The Jharkhand Police has adopted a unique initiative to check opium cultivation among the state's rural population, naming it the "Chocolate War."

Under the initiative, police personnel visit weekly village markets and distribute chocolates in wrappers containing information about the legal repercussions of opium cultivation.

Notably, the state's Khunti district is among the worst affected, where opium has become a 'major crop.' Large scale cultivation of opium is done in Arki, Sayko, Murhu and Maranghada aras of Khunti. Apart from Khunti, the districts of Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Latehar, Palamu, and Chatra have also become fertile grounds for the "opium mafia."

According to police, the "opium mafia" has been cultivating opium in the 'Maoist-influenced' pockets of Jharkhand, allegedly with the support of villagers and Maoists.

Under the aggressive campaign launched under the leadership of DGP Anurag Gupta, the police are not only taking strict action but also adopting measures to raise awareness among villagers about the consequences of cultivating and consuming opium.

In the last 20 days, several acres of opium crops have been destroyed across Jharkhand, the police said. This includes more than 3000 acres of crops in Khunti. FIRs are being registered against the owners of these lands and verification of farmers involved in the crop cultivation is also progressing, the police informed.

According to Khunti SP Aman Kumar, through the novel initiative, villagers are provided legal aspects of opium cultivation through street plays in the weekly 'haats' (markets).

"During this campaign, people are given chocolates in the Maranghada market of Khunti and requested to stay away from opium. The chocolate wrapper also has slogans against opium cultivation written on them. In addition to that a warning is also written on the chocolate wrapper saying, 'Cultivation of opium is a legal offence, if found involved, one will be arrested; will get punishment up to 10 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment. Properties will also be confiscated under the NDPS Act,” said Khunti SP Aman Kumar.

According to police warnings are written on chocolate wrappeer saying: "Cultivation of opium is a legal offence, if found involved, one will be arrested; will get punishment up to 10 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment. Properties will also be confiscated under the NDPS Act."
According to police warnings are written on chocolate wrappeer saying: "Cultivation of opium is a legal offence, if found involved, one will be arrested; will get punishment up to 10 years of imprisonment to life imprisonment. Properties will also be confiscated under the NDPS Act."(Photo\ Special arrangement)

The SP emphasised that the new initiative was implemented to extend the reach of awareness programmes as the villages often ignore pamphlets and notices issued by the police.

"The idea is to make the message reach every household. Instead of eating the chocolates, people will take them home for their children. After reading the message and its legal repercussions, the children will insist their parents not to adopt such illegal practices in case they would have been doing it,” the SP described.

Therefore, it is a kind of pressure tactics to check opium cultivation, he claimed.

A door-to-door campaign has also been launched under which people are being told to choose alternative forms of farming instead of opium cultivation and live in a fear-free environment.

Meanwhile, DGP Anurag Gupta has also warned of strict action against police officers found supporting opium smugglers.

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