Police keep a hawk’s eye on shady activities

 Visakhapatnam: As people gear up to usher in 2025 with a renewed ‘josh’, city police kept a hawk’s eye on illegal transportation and consumption of drugs and cannabis along with intensified checks on drunk driving.

With a large possibility of consuming drugs and other intoxicants during the New Year bash, special attention was paid to preventing any unwarranted incidents and identifying suspicious persons.

The city police have already issued guidelines to hotel managements and event managers listing the protocols and safety measures to be followed during New Year parties. As part of it, strict instructions were given to dedicate safe places for children and senior citizens. As the city is endowed with star hotels, party lovers from other districts and states prefer Visakhapatnam as their New Year celebration destination. Apparently, there’s also a higher possibility of ganja entering the party floors along with free flow of liquor. Keeping this in view, intense checking was launched by the city police at various points where ganja’s likely to be transported from rural pockets.

These apart, the city police deployed special teams to carry out random inspections in hotels during parties. Sharing details of the intense monitoring mechanism in place during the New Year’s Eve, City Commissioner of Police Shankhabrata Bagchi said, “There’s no compromise on providing safety to the people. In case of identifying any suspicious activity, people could contact my number directly to inform about it. We have equipment to check whether revellers consumed any ganja or drugs.”

Based on one’s behaviour and body language, the CP informed, monitoring was carried out as the police teams kept tabs on such suspicious persons too.

Similarly, drunk driving was not spared as the police kept strict vigilance on vulnerable spots. Sudden checks were carried out and alerts were issued torespective managements to inform any sort of suspicious activities to the police. Even as there are star hotels in the city, a few hosted New Year parties, offering special packages on the occasion. However, those who were adept in hoodwinking the police could not get away from their clutches as intense checking was in place at various junctions and stretches all along the city.