Allow police to act independently to eradicate ganja menace: EPS

CHENNAI: Former Chief Minister and AIADMK interim General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday urged Chief Minister MK Stalin to let the police department act on their own to crack down the ganja and other drug-related cases to completely abolish the drug menace in the State.

Recalling the recent statement of Chief Minister MK Stalin that he is not just a soft Chief Minister and will turn into a dictator to abolish the drug menace, the AIADMK leader asserted that Stalin should focus on the mission to wipe out Ganja instead of delivering lectures and verses.

The Leader of the Opposition had come out with a hard-hitting statement against the people at the helms saying, “Even though some sincere policemen are seizing drug substances, due to the mounting pressure and threats from power centers, they are not in a position to proceed with the case.”

In his statement, EPS questioned the significance of the recent conference conducted by the Chief Minister with police and other officers in the State. “Even before the Chief Minister was conducting a review meeting to abolish drugs, the DGP had declared operation Ganja 2.0. Did the CM fail to consult with the DGP when the latter was announcing operation Ganja 2.0?” the LOP asked.

EPS further charged the DMK government asserting that it has been enacting mere dramas in the name of constituting committees and making announcements on a daily basis since May 2021 when it came to the office.

“When the rulers declared in the Assembly that 7,000 cases have been filed against 9 500 drug peddlers in 2021, I asked them about the charge sheets filed in those cases. Also, when it was disclosed that 2150 cases were booked against 150 people for selling drugs near schools and colleges, I wanted the state to explain why only the least people were booked in the case. The state has neither responded to my questions nor contained the spread of ganja, ” EPS asserted in his statement.

The former Chief Minister made a charge that the Ganja menace in the state saying that there is a growing trend in the State that school and college students are getting addicted to the Ganja.

“As the government has failed to eradicate the ganja menace, I appeal to every parent in the state to make it as their own responsibility to monitor their children to ensure that they are away from the drugs,” EPS added.

The AIADMK leader recalled the recent incidents of this kind when some school girls were found unconscious on roads under the influence of drugs.

“Even as the police had caught people who sold illicit liquor near marina beach that is just before the state DGP’s office, the backdrop of the case had not come yet, ” EPS indicated.