100 Ludhiana villages drug hotspots, plan in place

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, September 21

In what appears to be a grim situation, almost 100 villages and localities in Ludhiana district have been identified as drug hotspots, the administration has confirmed.

The identification was done under the special drive launched by the district administration to identify and reform the drug addicts at the grassroots level, the officials have said.

The Deputy Commissioner, Surabhi Malik, told The Tribune here on Wednesday that an action plan has been put in place to tackle drug abuse with focus on identification of drug hotspots and undertaking information, education and communication (IEC) activities with efforts of key stakeholder departments — police, health, and civil administration.

Drug-free district soon, says DC

We are committed to freeing Ludhiana district of drugs by putting peddlers and smugglers behind bars and reforming addicts. The younger generation is educated and motivated against the use of drugs. —Surabhi Malik, Deputy Commissioner

She said the SDMs were assigned nodal officers for their subdivisions to act as conduit and overall in-charge of the campaign.

Khanna Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Amarjit Bains, who was district nodal officer of the anti-drug drive, said the number of cases registered under the NDPS Act, drug addicts concentration in the area and drug-related complaints received were taken into consideration to mark a village or an area as a drug hotspot.

“These have been identified on the basis of mixed criteria of objective and subjective nature,” he said, adding the hotspots were also of varying degree with some facing serious problem and others less.

While a maximum of 28 drug hotspots were identified in Ludhiana East subdivision, another urban subdivision of Ludhiana West has 27 drug hotspots.

Among others, 12 drug hotspots were marked in Jagraon, 11 in Payal, nine in Samrala, six in Raikot, and three in Khanna.

The DC said the SDMs were regularly conducting search and seizure operations in their areas. “Those found possessing the contraband are taken into custody and NDPS cases are registered,” she said, adding the aim of the drive was to bring peddlers and smugglers to book and reform the addicts by admitting them to de-addiction centres.

The Commissioner of Police, Dr Kaustubh Sharma, said not only the recovery of the majority of drugs, but the number of arrests and NDPS cases this year were the highest in the past five years.

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