Andhra Pradesh: Drive against drug abuse aims to cover 2 lakh students

The Kurnool district administration has set a massive target: it wants to reach out to over two lakh students and spread awareness against drug abuse. Motivational speakers and counsellors are interacting with the students as part of the campaign, which aims to cover every educational institution in the district.
Special drives with slogans such as ‘Yuvatha Meluko, Don’t Kill your Future’ have been launched targeting students of junior, degree and professional colleges. The district has three medical, 11 engineering, 186 degree and PG, and 216 junior colleges. 

“Teams of senior doctors, psychiatrists and juvenile officers motivate the students against using drugs, and try to help those addicted to them through various awareness sessions,’’ said joint collector (welfare and Asara) MKV Sreenivasulu. Sreenivasulu added: “The motivators and counsellors have already interacted with at least 50,000 youngsters from 25 per cent of the colleges in the district,’’ he added. 

Meanwhile, the expert teams are appealing to the parents to be more vigilant of the activities of their children so that any wrongdoing can be identified and nipped in the bud itself.The students, too, are receiving the drive in a positive manner. “Such awareness programmes bring a lot of changes in youngsters and desist them from getting addicted to drugs and other vices,’’ M Nandini, an engineering student, said.

“Drugs not only kill a person in the long run but they also divert the youth to crime. This is where the awareness campaigns come handy,” she added. The special drive coordinator and chief executive officer of Society for Employment and Training-Kurnool (SETKUR), T Nagaraja Naidu said the campaign conceptualises to free youth from drugs, liquor and other unhealthy practices such as gambling and online games. 

“Our primary goal is to make the student community drug-free even as we are working towards a drug-free Kurnool,’’ he pointed out.Simultaneously, the Madya Vimochana Porata Committee is also conducting similar motivational camps at degree colleges in the district. Chairman VLakshmana Reddy said they will set up a de-addiction centres at the GGH.