Act tough on illicit liquor, ganja: CS

Vijayawada: Chief secretary KS Jawahar Reddy directed the officials to act tough on sale of illicit liquor, ganja and drugs and arrest the accused under PD Act. The chief secretary conducted a review meeting at Secretariat on Thursday. He said awareness programmes should be organised to prevent youth getting attracted towards drugs. Jawahar Reddy asked the officials to intensify vigil at check posts and alternative routes to prevent smuggling of liquor and ganja in to the state. He asked the officials to discourage the tribals from cultivating ganja by introducing alternative crops for their livelihood under Operation Parivartana. Special Enforcement Bureau commissioner M Raviprakash said officials seized illicit liquor, drugs worth Rs 4.38 crore after Model Code of Conduct came into force. He said AP is having borders with six states and 90 per cent of ganja is being smuggled from Malkangiri district of Odisha and 10 per cent from Koraput. Efforts are on to prevent smuggling of ganja with the coordination of Odisha DGP. He said illicit liquor, drugs and ganja worth Rs 57.80 crore seized so far this year. Excise commissioner Vivek Yadav said that 17 primary distilleries, 20 IMFL and four other distilleries were present in the state. One assistant commissioner was made in-charge for each distillery. He said the liquor transport vehicles are being monitored through GPS to reach the depots directly.