ITANAGAR, 21 Apr: Chief minister’s adviser Dr Tangor Tapak on Friday said that the state government is “very keen and serious about the fight against drugs in the state.”
He said this during a consultative meeting organised by Tax & Excise Superintendent Kingman Komut and chaired by DC (i/c) Tajing Padung at the DC office in East Siang HQ Pasighat to discuss conducting effective anti-drugs campaign in the district, in view of the district having become “the fourth most drugs-affected district of the state,” the East Siang DIPRO informed in a release.
“Innovative and cost-free ideas came up during the discussions. Some of the ideas were: introduction of a morning topic on drugs, and yoga as mandatory curriculum in schools; formation of anti-drug squads at the district, block and village levels; and inclusion of drugs awareness speeches in any government-sponsored developmental programmes or gatherings,” the DIPRO informed.
“Another strong proposal was to link drug abuse to disqualify a proposed beneficiary of any government scheme. That is, introduce a no-drugs-abuse-in-the-family certificate as one of the criteria to qualify as a government scheme beneficiary,” the DIPRO said, adding that “prominent NGOs like WASE and ABK lamented that, due to the absence of a special NDPS court, drugs-related cases drag on for years.”
“Therefore, they demanded early setting up of a special NDPS court,” the release read.
Various stakeholders, including Mebo ADC Ainstein Koyu, DMO Dr Radesh Tatan, ICDS DD Machi Gao, DDSE Odhuk Tabing, PMC Chief Okiam Moyong Borang, and members of the ABK, the WASE and the AdiSU also spoke, the release said.
