VISHVENDU JAIPURIAR
Hazaribag, Jan 7: Chatra police are leaving no stone unturned to put a check on poppy cultivation. Other than arresting smugglers of interstate gangs, efforts to destroy poppy plants on forest lands in remote areas by using high-quality drone cameras are on. In the last four days, teams of police and the forest department worked together to destroy poppy plants on 280 acres of land.
Sources said drug peddlers are making villagers take up poppy cultivation for easy money. Poppy is used in making opium and brown sugar.
Due to this, in remote areas, villagers use forests and other government lands to grow poppy plants. The reason is that in case of police action, they will easily escape with the police and maximum cases never get the name of those who are behind this cultivation.
Police officials said poppy was destroyed in various blocks including Rajpur, Pratappur, Kunda, Lawalong, Huntergunj, Sadar and Vasisthnagar. From Monday to Thursday, we destroyed poppy on 280 acres, they informed.
The superintendent of police Rakesh Ranjan confirmed destroying poppy. He said in Rajpur, they have destroyed poppies on 32 acres, Pratappur 1 acre, Lawalong 41 acres, Huntergunj 4 acres, Vasishthnagar 46 acres, Sadar 11acres and 145 acres in Kunda block.
He said teams constituted for this work in every police station area is doing their work now. They are first identifying the land where poppies grow through drone cameras and then carry out raids destroying the plants, he added.
Police officials urged people not to grow poppies or to get involved in the making of opium and brown sugar as it will land them in trouble.
Officials said their awareness campaign in this regard brought results also in many areas with villagers assisting them in destroying poppy plants.
