Marijuana Cultivation declines in Odisha
In another development of excise enforcement activities, the illegal cannabis cultivation has declined in the State during the current crop year particularly in the districts like Angul, Deogarh Sambalpur wherethese plants were traditionally being grown. The interstate traders and dalals who used to lucre, instigate or terrify the local farmers for this cultivation have been arrested, put to trail and convicted. This has been discussed in the High Level Coordination Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Prasad Padhi in secretariat conference hall on Tuesday.
Reviewing the activities undertaken so far Chief Secretary directed the Police, Forest, Excise and Revenue departments to intensify the multi-squad enforcement activities to wipe out this evil from the State. Sri Padhi has further instructed to prepare the seizer papers, case records appropriately following all the procedures and stipulations of the Act for raising the level of conviction. Chief Secretary also directed that the District Level Enforcement Committees should meet regularly and update its strategies for destruction of cannabis along with arrest and conviction of the offenders. The department was advised to engage special counsels if thought necessary in selective cases.
Special DG Crime Sri B.K.Sharma, present in the meeting appraised that the interstate traders from the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Kerala have been arrested and convicted for instigating this illegal activity. The identification and destruction activities of hemp plants have also been intensified in the districts like Kandhamal Boudh and Gajapati. It was decided in the meeting that CID Crime Branch would closely monitor the enforcement activities of the district police in the matter. Annual action plan for destruction would be worked out in consultation with district level enforcement officers.
Registration of cases subsequent to destruction and arrests would be mandatory as per the rules. Financial investigation under section 68 of the Act would be carried out for asset attachment and confiscation. Local people and the community would be taken to confidence in intelligence collection. Chief Secretary directed the Revenue and Forest departments to issue suitable direction to the filed level officers for intelligence sharing in the matter. Launching a reward system in coordination with National Narcotics Control Board was also discussed in the meeting.
It was also decided that provisions of the PITNDPS Act would be used for preventive detention of the habitual offenders and traffickers. Excise Commissioner Sri Prasant Kumar Senapati presenting the updates said that during 2015-16 a total number of 1745 cases were tetected in various districts and 724 persons were arrested. Around 46,67,491hemp plants were destroyed, 22255 ltrs of ID liquor, 1501 of OS liquor, 387 ltrs of CS liqor , 365 lpl of IMFL, 898 kg of Ganja along with other incriminating materials were seized. The approximate value of the seizer was estimated around Rs.467.53 cr.
The Development Commissioner Sri R. Balakrishnan, Director General of Police Sri Kunwar Brajesh Singh, Principal Secretary Excise Sri S.P.Thakur, Principal Secretary Home Sri Asit Tripathy, Principal Secretary Forest & Environment Sri Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, Principal Secretary Revenue & Disaster Management Dr Mona Sharma, Chief Executive Officer ORSAC Sri Sandeep Tripathy, Additional Secretary Excise Sri Pramod Kumar Panda along with senior officers of concerned departments participated in discussions.
Hon’ble Governor of Odisha, Dr. Senayangba Chubatoshi Jamir on Wednesday appointed three officers on special duty as vice chancellors of three Universities. Manmath Padhi has been appointed as the VC of Khallikote Cluster University, Padmaja Mishra as VC of Ramadevi Women’s University and Sudhansu Shekhar Rath has been appointed the VC of Gangadhar Meher University.