Mangalore: Drug Offences to Come Under Purview of Goonda Act Soon
Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (PS/CN)
Mangalore, Aug 11: Increasing number of young students consuming narcotic substances in the city has forced the police commissioner to consider invoking the Goonda Act against such crimes.
At a meeting chaired by police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh along with DCP (crime and traffic) Dharmaiah and DCP (law and order) Mutthuraya at the commissioner’s office on Thursday August 11, Singh said that the main reason for an increasing number of youth falling prey to drug addiction is the lack of legal consequences.
“Goonda Act will not permit bail for one year for such crimes and steps will be taken by every police station in the commissionerate to convene meetings with NGOs, doctors, and heads of education institutions,” said the commissioner. He added that the crime rate is more among drug addicts.
At the meeting, suggestions were received from principals of various educational institutions, student’s union representatives, and doctors.
Dr Satish Rao, head of psychiatry, from K S Hegde Hospital, said that though the drug mafia is active in the city since many several years, the response of police till now has been very poor in curbing it. He added that earlier young drug addict patients were from colleges, while now he comes across students from high schools too.
There was a call for student unions to not just organize cultural events and forget their responsibility of holding awareness programmes on the drug mafia. The head of an educational institution drew the attention of the police department by saying that in a few city shops there are no commodities but still students gather there leading to the doubt that these are hubs of the drug mafia. There were complaints heard that in many colleges the anti-drug addict cell is not actively engaged in creating awareness.
Another institutional head said that educational institutional administrators too have the responsibility of checking whether any students are found exhibiting weird behaviour contrary to their normal behaviour and not mingling with fellow students.
Singh, speaking to press persons later, said that mainly police personnel are vigilant at drug prone areas like beaches and other places. Speaking about the recent reports of drug peddlers in the city, he said investigations are on full wing and the culprits will face legal action.