Excise staff crunch hits check on ganja

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Jan 4, 2013 : With Crores of rupees worth ganja being caught in plain areas while transporting it illegally to various parts of India, it’s evident that the cultivation is rampant in Vizag Agency tracts.

Though authorities were successful in curbing the illegal transport they are time and again failing to put an end to the cultivation of the green drug.  Staff crunch in excise and enforcement wing here, naxal fear and inaccessible tough terrain is said to be helping ganja cultivation thrive in Vizag Agency, which turned out to be a safe haven for ganja peddlers and smugglers from other states.

In 2012, according to the official statistics around 13,500 kilos of ganja worth Rs 15 cr was seized from peddlers. It was only once in November, last year with the help of anti naxal squads with arms, ammunition that excise sleuths could destroy cultivation in just 10 acres in Pedabayalu in thickly naxal infested Andhra Odisha Border (AOB).

“It’s not so easy to enter those areas. With the help of district police equipped with arms and ammunition we could reach some tracts in Pedabayalu on AOB with much difficulty and destroy cultivation in 10 acres. By the time we reached there it was almost noon and had to return in sometime by night to nearby plain area. Tribals cultivating ganja with the help of manures, fertilizers do not hesitate to kill anyone who comes their way,” excise department deputy commissioner, M Satyanarayana told this correspondent.

It was strong presence of Maoists and aggressive behaviour of tribals in certain Agency pockets which was dampening the excise sleuths to raid the areas where ganja is cultivated.

Of the total 17 excise stations in the district, there are only three in Agency tracts-Paderu, Chintapalli and G Madugula. Whereas ganja cultivation is rampant in 8 of 11 Agency mandals- Anantagiri, Paderu, Dumbriguda, Hukkumpeta,  Pedabayalu, GK Veedhi G Madugula and Munchangiputtu.

Whereas an excise station needs 12 constables apart from an SI and the inspector, each station now has only two constables which is making them difficult to conduct frequent raids on the cultivation ground and destroy the crop.

There was no recruitment of excise constables since 1992 and there are 151 vacancies in Vizag district alone. A recent recruitment drive witnessed around 26,500 candidates applying for 151 posts. The excise senior official admitted that staff crunch was hindering their attempts to cut the roots of ganja cultivation. “We had to bring all the constables, officers leaving one guard at every 17 excise stations in the district to conduct November raid. We have just begun the recruitment and hopeful of conducting such raids after we get full strength of constables,” added Satyanrayana.

The tribals are also using modern techniques with the help of manure and water pumps to cultivate ganja. Smugglers from Kerala and Tamil Nadu are also reliably learnt to be funding local tribals to cultivate the crop. Interestingly, the ganja peddlers have specially redesigned some vehicles having secret chambers to hoodwink police.

Around 304 drug peddlers including 100 inter-state smugglers were arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 while transporting ganja in various parts in 2012. Police also seized around 50 vehicles including four-wheelers
and 6.45 lakh in cash from the drug peddlers in 116 reported cases in 2012. Superintendent of Police, G Srinivas said that for the first time their teams seized huge
quantity of ganja in a year and arrested good number of smugglers. In 2011, police seized 10,823 kgs of ganja and arrested 217 criminals, while in 2010 they seized 5,900 kgs green drug trade and arrested 130 drug peddlers. Assistant Superintendent of Police, Narsipatnam, Tafseer Iqbal said that Tamilians who have settled at various places in Vizag agency in the name of business, are playing a vital role in smuggling the green drug to Chennai, where the value of green drug was high.
Srinivas told that now they geared up for financial investigation under Section 68 (F) of
NDPS Act against the culprits to seizure of properties. Smugglers from Tamil Nadu and Kerala buy the Sheelavathi variety of ganja, at Rs. 2,000 per kg and sell at Rs. 8,000 in places like Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.