Porvorim: Drugs is a serious issue and needs to be dealt with collectively, said PWD minister Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar on the floor of the House on Wednesday. Dhavalikar appeared for chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who has been unable to attend to the session due to ill health.The question was tabled by Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes during ‘Question Hour’. He was joined by other members who expressed their concern about youth indulging in drugs.Fernandes, along with opposition leader Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar, said that the menace of drugs has infiltrated into the schools.“Drugs have reached into school compounds,” said Fernandes, while opposition leader Kavlekar said two years ago, a school head at Cujira complex, Bambolim, wrote to the education department expressing his suspicion that some of his students were indulging in drugs. But, there was no action whatsoever, said Kavlekar.Dhavalikar, earlier, said that the government and police have adopted a zero tolerance policy towards drugs activities. Letters have been also written to schools seeking their co-operation.Congress’ Ponda MLA Ravi Naik said his school, Ponda education Society (PES) had received no such letter. Talking about various measures taken by the government to curtail the drug trade, Dhavalikar also mentioned statistics of arrests made and drugs seized during the last three years.In 2017, Dhavalikar said 168 cases were booked and 85.77kg of drugs worth Rs 2.91 crore were seized. Till the end of the last month, 23 cases were registered, 27 persons were booked and drugs worth Rs 52.87 lakh were seized. The chief minister, in his written reply to a similar question, said the narcotic trade is an organized crime and specific mandatory provisions of law are required to be adhered to while booking cases under NDPS Act, unlike cases under other Acts.“The records suggest that more narcotic drugs have been recovered and cases booked in the coastal belt, frequented by tourists during the tourist season. Booking of more number of narcotic cases implies that the in-charge of police stations and staff have been seriously tracking the suspects and conducting narcotic seizures. Goa Police have been making all out efforts to eradicate the drug menace from Goa,” Parrikar’s written reply stated, adding that in case any concrete evidence comes forth regarding involvement of any police personnel into drug-related activity, strict departmental action shall be taken.

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