Bhubaneswar: The excise and police officials have destroyed 46.97 lakh hemp plants till December last year.
According to official sources, the police and excise sleuths undertake the anti-hemp cultivation drive in 10 districts every year.
About 46,97,166 hemp plants cultivated on 791 acres of land has been destroyed till December last year while 36,74, 104 hemp plants were destroyed during same period the previous year.
While the highest of 33,90,000 hemp plants were destroyed in Kandhamal district, 5,27,300 plants were destroyed in Angul followed by Gajapati (5,14,000), Rayagada (1,92,000), Malkangiri (71,050), Deogarh (2,216) and Cuttack (600).
Maoists are allegedly funding the hemp cultivation and people are lured to cultivate the psychotropic substance instead of rice and vegetables, officials stated.
Around 71.56 quintal of ganja was seized from various districts during 2011-12 while another 87.26 quintal ganja was seized in 2015-16 and 51.14 quintal by the end of September last year, the sources said.
The excise and police officials have registered 255 cases under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act during 2014-15. Similarly, 360 such cases were registered in last fiscal and about 200 till September last year. While 249 people were arrested in 2014-15, the annual figure rose to 370 last year.
The state government has made provision of `70 lakh for detection and destruction of illegally cultivated cannabis in the affected districts. Of the total fund, `39,85,000 has been released to police officials while `15, 20,000 allotted to excise officials so far, they said.
The government has decided to constitute a drug disposal committee under the chairmanship of home secretary for disposal of the sized narcotics.
As per the direction of Supreme Court, the state government has made provision of `5 crore in last Supplementary Budget to set up exclusive store houses and godowns duly equipped with vaults and double locking system to keep the seized materials to prevent theft, pilferage and replacement.
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