Online legal awareness programme held
Source: The Sangai Express
Tml/Spt, July 20 2021:
District Legal Services Authority, Tamenglong organised an online 'Legal Awareness Programme' for PLVs, Police personnel, local clubs of Tamenglong today on the topic "Role of PLVs, Local Clubs etc in identifying the potential drug users, pattern among the local youth and steps for prevention and rehabilitation".
The programme began with a welcome address by Aribam Guneshwar Sharma, MJS, District & Sessions Judge, Imphal West cum Chairman DLSA Tamenglong.
He emphasized the importance of differentiating between drug users and drug traffickers, especially as a role of police.
The resource person, Nalinikanta Rajkumar, president Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE), Manipur identified three' main sources or reasons for availability of drugs in Manipur.
First is Manipur being a neighbour of Myanmar, one of the countries of Golden Triangle, second is the Pharmaceutical Companies and third is the poppy plantation culture.
Nalinikanta Rajkumar emphasized that the drug users are not to be criminalized but rather empathized like any other patients and provide proper treatment.
He stated that there are at present 21 Ministry funded Rehabilitation Centres in Manipur but unfortunately not a single such Rehabilitation Centre is established in Tamenglong District.
He expressed concern that currently drugs are available easily and at cheaper rates leading to exponential increase in the number of drug users.
This being the trend, there is a need for increasing the number of rehabilitation centres.
Considering the rise in number of drug users in the State many private funded rehabilitation centres are mushrooming hence framing of proper rules and regulations for monitoring these centres is also the need of the hour.
During the discussion hour, many concerns were raised by PLVs including the non-availability of proper treatment centres for drug users in Tamenglong and Noney Districts.
K Nirojit, Chief Judicial Magistrate cum Secretary, DLSA Tamenglong highlighted the importance of role of PLVs and local clubs in sensitizing the problem of drug users so that these drug users could be identified and proper treatment could be provided to them.
The programme was attended by Judicial Officers, PLVs, Police personnel, local clubs of Tamenglong.
Similarly, under the aegis of Manipur State Legal Services Authority, the District Legal Services Authority, Senapati organised a one day online awareness cum interaction programme with the Panel Lawyers, PLVs and members of Legal Literacy Clubs of DLSA, Senapati.
During the webinar, Mala Lisham, Programme Officer, Social Welfare Department Manipur stressed on the topic "Chief Minister's COVID-19 Affected Livelihood Support Scheme" and "Chief Minister gi Angangi Tengbang (Bal Seva) Scheme" .
She also elaborated about the schemes, eligibility criteria, documents required and last date of submission of form for the schemes etc.
Later, an interaction session with the participants was also held.
It was participated by Samom Ibjen, Chairman, DLSA, Senapati; A Tarunakumari Devi, secretary DLSA, Senapati; Ksh Maheta Devi, JMFC, Mao; S Marysena, Retainer Lawyer, Front Office of DLSA, Senapati; Panel Lawyers, PLVs and members of Legal Literacy Clubs of Senapati.