BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government may have announced former DGP Abhay as chairman of the State Task Force on narcotics matters but ironically, its special narcotics wing under the Special Task Force (STF) awaits to be fully operational.
Only on December 29, the State government posted a full-time SP-ranked officer to head the narcotics wing.
Interestingly, the Odisha Government had set up the narcotics unit in June last year to check drug trafficking in the State more effectively. Yet, it forgot to create manpower for the unit despite approving posts.
The government approved 27 new posts for STF including one in the rank of SP and three in the rank of Deputy SPs but all these posts are yet to be filled up.
For record’s sake, the STF has two units - organized crime and narcotics and each unit is supposed to be headed by an SP ranked officer.
With new posts yet to be filled up, organised crime unit’s existing manpower is being attached to the narcotics wing to fill the vacancies. The redeployment might affect the functioning of the organised crime unit, sources added.
With Malkangiri SDPO Abilash G posted as STF’s narcotics unit SP, the unit could get off ground.
“The SP is expected to join the unit this week. However, there are still vacancies mostly in other ranks,” said a senior police officer.
Even though the government has been emphasising the need to battle a massive drugs trade by creating dedicated wing/organisation, its intent is not backed up by real-time measures in terms of manpower.
As a result, there has been no let-up in the drug trade. Sale of brown sugar and other contraband continues to be rampant in Odisha.
Between January and October last year, the Department of Excise seized over 8 kg brown sugar from various parts of the State, while STF, a wing of Crime Branch, recorded a haul of 43.85 kg brown sugar, registered 290 cases and arrested 600 peddlers in the State.
In 2017, 411 gram brown sugar was seized by Odisha Police as compared to 1.45 kg in 2018, 2.647 kg in 2019 and and 35.616 kg in 2020.