Meet endorses war on drugs campaign
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, January 27 2023: Kanglei People Against Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (Kanglei PANAS) organised a public meet to show support to the government's War on Drugs mission, at Keishampat Leimajam Leikai, here, on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion, Kanglei PANAS secretary general Wahaj Phundrei expressed concern that the state is facing a serious threat from drugs, and people of the state need to support the government's war on drugs mission in order to salvage the situation and protect the future generation.

The issue of drugs is one of the several issues the state faced during the period from 2005 to 2014.AMADA and other CSOs brought up the issue of illegal poppy cultivation.

It is unfortunate that some political parties are trying to mislead the public by saying that illegal poppy cultivation is a comparatively new issue.

AMADA along with armed forces carried out poppy destruction operations from the later part of 2009 till 2014 in around 750 acres of land in Nongmaijing, Thawai Mapithel and Singhat among others.

However, the then government did not pay much attention towards the issue and it led to the present situation.

Even, 18 activists of AMADA were arrested by the then government, whose case was closed only in November 2022.Such obstructions in the activities of the activists led to the downfall of AMADA and widespread illegal poppy cultivation, he said.

It would hot be wrong to say that the previous government did not frame policies against drugs and it paid more focus on fake encounters unlike the present government, which is carrying out extensive operation against drugs with an iron hand, he said and added that they will not accept any attempt to derail the mission.

Informing that the public meet has been organised by Kanglei PANAS along with AMADA founders, he proposed the formation of a poppy eradication force with volunteers from general public and representatives from CSOs to assist the government in destroying poppy plants and restoring forest covers in the poppy farms.

He also urged CSOs to join hands and make the mission effective.

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