Ludhiana police intensifies campaign against drug menace

Ludhiana: Ludhiana police commissionerate arrested 171 drug peddlers and lodged 117 FIRs against them in the past month under the "Yudh Nasheya Virudh" campaign, said special director general of police (DGP), community affairs division and women affairs, Punjab, Gurpreet Kaur Deo. However, when questioned about the action taken against big players running the drug nexus, Deo agreed that action against them was yet to be taken. Police officials have been directed to probe backward linkages of the arrested drug peddlers so that big smugglers can be apprehended.
Special DGP Deo also said that during the campaign, which started on March 1, Ludhiana city police recovered 4 kg heroin, 5kg opium, 55kg poppy husk, 1kg charas, 11kg cannabis, 23gm cocaine, and 5,330 intoxicating pills over the past month.
"Besides the action on drug peddlers, anti narcotic task force (ANTF) and local intelligence agencies shared a list of 200 drug smugglers from Ludhiana. Of these 200 smugglers, police have arrested 100, and the remaining 100 will be behind bars soon," she said.
When asked why the police could not arrest big smugglers, Deo replied, "Big smugglers use peddlers to supply drugs. Therefore, initially, peddlers get arrested. I agree that the big fish are yet to be nabbed and therefore, police officials have been directed to trace backward linkages of arrested peddlers to reach the big smugglers, so that the drug supply chain can be broken."
She added that Ludhiana Police froze drug peddlers' illegally occupied property valued at Rs 2.80 crore in March. She added that besides cutting drug supply, police are also focusing on reducing demand for drugs. She said that all the 28 police stations in Ludhiana Commissionerate organised 268 "Sampark" meetings with people in the past month. Besides, 235 drug awareness seminars were held at various educational institutes, she said, adding that police also conducted nine cordon and search operations (CASO) at drug hotspots in Ludhiana.
The special DGP also said that when action is taken to check the drug trade, admission of persons struggling with addiction in de-addiction centres also increases. As per health department details, Ludhiana's government de-addiction centres have 100% occupancy. More staff and beds are being made available at the centres by the health department. With support from drug inspectors, raids are being conducted to check pharmacies regarding illegal sale of pharmaceutical drugs, she said.
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