Set up anti-drugs squads at district level: Arunachal chief

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar asked officials on Monday to set up anti-drugs squads at the district level to check the growing menace of narcotics in the state.

At a meeting with law enforcement agencies, he asked deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to conduct surveys in their respective districts and destroy illicit opium cultivation, a statement said.

Rope in well-known personalities as brand ambassadors for campaigns against drugs in the districts, the chief secretary told the officials.

He suggested an intensive anti-drugs campaign in schools and colleges to sensitise the younger generation.

The chief secretary also told the tax, excise and narcotics department to tie up with mobile operators and FM stations to reach out to people in local dialects about the ill effects of drugs.

The meeting was attended by inspector generals of police Ravindra Singh Yadav and Sagar Preet Hooda, zonal director of Narcotics Control Bureau Rakesh Chandra Shukla, tax, excise and narcotics secretary Anirudh S Singh, women and child development secretary Niharika Rai, besides DCs and SPs, the statement said.