EAGLE eye on drug menace

Vijayawada: The hawk-eyed task force, christened as EAGLE, will have to grapple with not only eradicating the menace of ganja which has entered the school bags in particularly in the tribal belt of the state but also to resolve the problems like alarming increase in use of opioids, sedatives and inhalants by children in the age group of 10-17 years.

This issue was raised in the Assembly by Kadapa MLA Reddappagari Madhavi Reddy. She said many women had come to her and asked her to ask the police to put their children in jail as they had become addicted to drugs and were resorting to thefts in the house and when objected they were turning violent and beating the parents.

Referring to this issue while speaking on the law & order situation issue in the Assembly, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the EAGLE (Elite Anti-Narcotics Group for Law Enforcement) teams will also focus on the issue. He said apart from taking measures to see that the youth were weaned away from getting addicted to drugs, the government will also ensure that the state becomes drug free. Stringent action would be taken against all those who try to smuggle drugs into the state in any form, he said. On the other hand, drones are being used to identify the cultivation of ganja and necessary action will be taken to put an end to it, he added.

Naidu said that a national forensic science campus will be set up in the state so that the organized crime on social media which was encouraged during the previous YSRCP regime can be checked. Action will be taken against the ‘Paytm batch’, who have been posting objectionable comments on women leaders and family members of the alliance party leaders, including Pawan Kalyan, Home Minister Vangalapudi Vanitha and family members of YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The CM said the appointment of a public prosecutor would also be done soon and the Preventive Detention (PD) Act will be further strengthened. If anyone indulges in selling spurious seeds, irregularities in sand mining or rice mafia, action will be taken as per the PD Act. Similarly, if anyone indulges in land grabbing as happened between 2019-2024, they would be sent to jail, he added.

The Chief Minister said that if Andhra Pradesh should be the address for knowledge economy, maintaining law and order is important. “Unless the law & order is perfect, neither investments will come nor can we achieve the goal of creating Swarnandhra Pradesh,” he said.