A total of 610 persons have been arrested for trafficking of drugs worth over Rs 300 crore in Meghalaya during the last two years.
This was informed by Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh after addressing a multi-stakeholder symposium organized under Drug Reduction Elimination & Action Mission (DREAM) in observance of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking here on Wednesday. This year’s theme is “The evidence is clear: invest in prevention”.
Speaking to reporters, Lyngdoh said that more needs to be done and that is why the state government has decided to involve leaders of the community in actually assisting the police in enforcing laws against drugs.
“What was lacking all along was community participation. It was there but it was limited to efforts like deaddiction and counselling but for us to proactively engage with the community it would be to get the community to be part of policing, which is why the very important missing link this government has finally been able to address is the need to have the leaders of the community to actually assisting the police in enforcing laws against drugs,” he said.
“For instance, PITNDPS, which is currently in effect cannot be effectively engaged with unless we have community participation, which is why today the dorbar shnongs have been requested to come up with any further suggestions on the framework of the Village Defence Party (VDP),” he added.
The minister informed formation and reviving of the VDPs will start very soon after the government collects all suggestions from the dorbar shnongs in regards to the Act that governs the formations of the VDPs.
“We should be able to collect all suggestions by the end of this month,” he said.
Stating that there are only 11 active VDPs in Shillong city as on date, Lyngdoh said, “The vast number of localities remained uncovered but as you can see to the response of the meeting last time and today’s symposium, the response has been very encouraging and we expect them to form these VDPs in line with the provisions of the law.”
Further, the minister informed that the government will also extend financial assistance to the traditional institutions to incentivise the VDP volunteers.
“Yes, in fact we have solicited their opinions under the current framework of the VDP. We also are accessing fundings from the Government of India and we should be in a position to incentivize volunteers of these VDPs. We will first go through the suggestions of the dorbar shnongs and then come up with a figure or an amount, which will at least act as an incentive for them to come forward and spend their time in community policing,” he asserted.
Asked, the social welfare minister said, “It’s (drug menace) a multi-faceted scenario where we not only address it as a crime to be detected and checked but also as an initiative that has to begin from the family, which is why you will see that we have engaged civil societies, faith based organizations, dorbar shnongs.”
“The most effective instruments at the local level would be the dorbar shnongs and we have sought their active participation and we have gone across the state and right now as we speed this world drugs day is being observed through the length and breadth of Meghalaya,” he underscored while informing that awareness programmes are being organized even at the level of hamlets and villages, which shows “we are proactive as a government”.
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