After Chandigarh, Panchkula starts weeding out cannabis
The campaign was carried after the Punjab and Haryana high court on May 22, had rapped Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali for wild growing cannabis
Around five quintals of cannabis plants were destroyed by Panchkula municipal corporation as a part of a special drive to destroy wild growing cannabis after uprooting them in Panchkula on Monday.
The campaign was carried after the Punjab and Haryana high court on May 22, had rapped Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali for wild growing cannabis.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) narcotics Jagbir Singh and assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Ramesh Kumar Gulia, were also present while uprooting and destroying the cannabis plants, horticulture wing’s executive engineer Pramod said.
The drive was carried out in areas including sectors 12, 12 A, 2, 4, Dolphin Chowk petrol pump, Sector 14 police station, and near the Phase 1liquor vend , MDC and Gandhi Colony. The team cut the plants, seized and later incinerated them.
Additional deputy commissioner (ADC) cum MC chief Sachin Gupta said the campaign of destroying wild growing cannabis would continue so that people could be saved from its addiction.
HC had sought reports from the tricity administrations
It may be mentioned that after taking a serious note of wild growth of cannabis, the HC had sought reports from administrations of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula by May 20.
“..A large number of cannabis plants can be seen growing even in the open areas near the Judges residential houses in Sectors 4, 7, 10, 11 and more particularly in Sector 24, Chandigarh including the Secretariat round-about and outskirts of High Court and in Rajendra Park etc, which is facilitating the miscreants indulging in to drug peddling,” the bench of justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and justice Sandeep Moudgil observed during hearing of a plea on drugs seizure case of Punjab.
It further recorded that many visitors/passerby or may be even the residents of the city, especially the youth and kids were misusing the wild growth for their illegal commercial use.
The administrations of Panchkula and Mohali had not filed their affidavits and their counsels had submitted that meetings of the chief secretaries have taken place with the concerned heads of the department and directions have been issued to take necessary action. The court, however, called the stand taken by them as “clandestine” and condemnable and asserted that it was not acceptable to the court.