To curb ganja smuggling, Visakhapatnam police decide to set up more number of checkposts in various areas

To further curtail the ganja transportation in the region, the Visakhapatnam police have decided to set up more number of checkposts in various areas

To further curtail the ganja transportation in the region, the city police have decided to set up more number of checkposts in various areas. All the major routes and sub-routes covering Alluri Sitharama Raju and Anakapalli districts as well as Odisha will be covered. The decision was taken recently during a meeting held with police chiefs from five districts of North Andhra region.

As per the officials, there is no major availability of ganja in ASR district unlike earlier. Now, most of the ganja plantations are located in interior parts of Odisha. Smugglers from various regions are collecting the ganja from their sources in Odisha and are bringing it to some bordering areas of ASR district, which is further moved to Visakhapatnam city, to finally sent to States like Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Basically, Visakhapatnam city is being used as a transit point, the police officials say.

Special focus is laid on routes such as S.Kota – Pendurthi, Sabbavaram – Vepagunta and Anakapalli – Duvvada. Not ruling out the possibility of ganja smuggling from Odisha via Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts, checkings are also being organised covering those routes. The police have now decided to set up a few more checkposts and also surprise peddlers with random checkings at some vulnerable areas.

Meanwhile, the city police have also decided to focus on those peddlers who are targeting college-going students and initiate stringent action like invoking P.D Act.

Police Commissioner C.M. Trivikrama Varma held a meeting, recently, where he asked the Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) to form special teams and focus on educational institutions and ensure students do not fall prey to ganja. In the meanwhile, anti-drug and ganja campaign was also launched some days ago in the educational institutions.

Focus is also being laid over the sale of ganja in small quantities by the peddlers. Recently, the Duvvada police caught two persons consuming ganja in an open place. Upon investigation, the ganja was sold by a vendor at Duvvada. They have further found that a couple from Narsipatnam have sold ganja to the vendor. All the accused in the case were traced by teams and arrested.