DGP Asks Commissioners To Clamp Down On Drug Menace

The unearthing of the operation of a "drug mafia" in the twin cities has come as a wake-up call for various authorities, especially the law-enforcing agencies and the managements of private educational institutions, to view the situation seriously and take all necessary measures on high priority to curb the menace before it gets out of hand.

Telangana Director-General of Police Anurag Sharma on Friday convened a meeting of all the police commissioners and other senior officials, including from the excise and intelligence wings, to take stock of the situation in the wake of serious concerns being expressed by the parents of students as the drug mafia was reportedly targeting educational institutions for prospective clientele.

Addressing them, the DGP advised the police commissioners to form special cells in their jurisdictions and deal with the drug peddlers firmly. In this regard, he wanted that police stations under whose jurisdictions the schools and colleges were functioning keep an eye on any suspicious activities in the vicinity of the institutions. Petty shopkeepers and vendors of knickknacks near the educational institutions should also be closely watched, the DGP said.

Sharma also stressed the need for the police stations to take the assistance of local intelligence officers in gathering various inputs. He made it clear to the officers that it was imperative to unearth the source of the drug supply to the peddlers. For this, he wanted a close watch on the pubs and hookah joints being frequented by the students, youth and IT professionals.

In the meantime, with reports circulating that college students, especially those from the various engineering colleges, had been the regular customers of the drug peddlers, the Vice-Chancellors of all the universities in Telangana held a high-level conference under the aegis of the State Council of Higher Education to discuss the alarming issue. The meeting decided to constitute an Anti-Drug Committee, which would act as a watchdog to monitor regularly the implementations of various preventive steps to be taken in all the colleges, including private colleges. The Principals of various colleges will form part of the committee.

Prof. Papireddy, Chairman of the State Council of Higher Education, said that one of the measures to be taken up on priority was installation of CCTV cameras on the premises of the colleges. These would be installed at strategic points in the college buildings. While the authorities of the educational institutions would initiate all the required measures to check the drug menace, he also stressed on the need for parents to keep a close watch on their wards and monitor their activities.