Balasore: In the wake of the huge haul of brown sugar from Jaleswar and allegations about the thriving drug trade in north Odisha, a joint drive has been launched by the excise, the police and the health and forest departments to crack down on the narcotics business.
Brown sugar worth Rs 1.65 core was seized from the mafia in Jaleswar area of Balasore district recently.
A decision was taken at a high-level meeting here Wednesday to set up three-tier squads to check drug trafficking. The squads will operate at the district, sub-divisional and tehsil levels.
Collector Ramesh Chandra Rout had taken serious note of drug smuggling. The move is considered appropriate to curb the rampant bootlegging and drug trafficking in the district.
SP Jugal Kishor Kumar Banoth, ADM Sambit Nayak, Sub-Collector Nilu Mohapatra, District Excise Superintendent Rajesh Bhotra, ASP Tushar Kant Jena, SDPOs, Tehsildars and Drug Inspectors brainstormed recently on measures required to stop the inflow of narcotic substances and hooch.
They decided to set up the three-tier squads. The district squad will be headed by the Collector and the SP. The ASP, the DFO, the CDMO, the Excise Superintendent and Drug Inspectors will be its members.
The Sub-Collector will head the sub-divisional squad. The SDPO, Assistant Forester, the Assistant Excise Superintendent, Drug Inspectors, IICs and the Superintendent of mobile excise squads will be its members.
The tehsil squad will be headed by the Tehsildar while the IICs, the Ranger, Excise Inspectors and OICs will be its members.
The three squads will hold meetings every month and draw up blueprints for raids on bootleggers and the drug mafia.
During raids, the SP will provide APR forces. Excise Superintendent Rajesh Bhotra said due to staff shortage, the department officials had to face the fury of the liquor mafia.
Raids will be carried out on illegal liquor brewers operating in forests with the help of forest and tehsil officials, Bhotra said.
