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Sirsa records uptick in drug cases in 2022
In the last one year, we have confiscated over 5 kg heroin, 38 kg opium, 4,626 kg saw-dust poppy, 61kg ganja and nearly 25,000 banned tablets and capsules
: Haryana’s Sirsa district, which borders Punjab and Rajasthan, has seen a significant rise in the cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in 2022, recording a 27% increase as compared to the last year.
According to Sirsa police, as many as 615 cases were registered under the NDPS act in 2022 against the last year’s 447.
However, police arrested 1,035 people in connection with drug cases this year, while 737 persons were sent behind bars last year. In the neighbouring Fatehabad district, a total of 243 cases of NDPS came to the fore this year against last year’s 202 and 463 drug peddlers have been arrested as compared to 379 in 2021.
Sirsa police superintendent (SP) Arpit Jain said they have started ‘operation clean’ against the drug peddlers and the policemen are visiting villages to make people aware about the drug menace.
“We have urged people to boycott the drug smugglers and those extending support to them. In the last one year, we have confiscated over 5 kg heroin, 38 kg opium, 4,626 kg saw-dust poppy, 61kg ganja and nearly 25,000 banned tablets and capsules. We have demolished the illegally acquired properties of drug smugglers and this drive will be continued,” the SP added.
In the recently concluded assembly session, Congress MLA Amit Sihag from Dabwali in Sirsa raised the issue of drug menace in his constituency and demanded better policing to curb the menace.
In May this year, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had admitted during a rally at Sirsa’s Odhan village that 40 deaths have been reported in Sirsa and Fatehabad districts due to the drug abuse, adding that “ eliminating drug abuse is my priority.”
Sirsa MP Sunita Duggal also expressed concern over the problem of drug abuse in India in the recently concluded session of the lower house of parliament in discussion under rule 193. Sharing her experience when she fought the 2014 assembly election from Ratia segment, she said women asked her to save their children from drug abuse.
“The union government has identified 272 districts across the nation affected by drug menace, which includes 10 districts of Haryana. All three districts of Sirsa, Fatehabad and Jind, which are part of my constituency are also victims of drug abuse. Union home minister Amit Shah had chaired a meeting of chief ministers of northern states in Chandigarh and directed them to take proper steps to curb drugs,” she said.
“We had started a clean mission in Sirsa to curb the menace. The neighbouring Rajasthan and Punjab governments have failed to take concrete steps to keep a check of drug cases and I have urged the chief minister to keep a police vigil team on border states areas to stop the entry of drug peddlers,” she added.
