MARGAO: Going by the slew of police raids, it appears that drug addiction among the youth and the sale of ganja are serious issues in South Goa, particularly in the coastal belt of the Salcete taluka.
In 2023, South Goa police conducted 24 raids under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, with Margao police having registered five cases while Ponda, Vasco and Colva booked three cases each.
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Fatorda, Curchorem and Canacona police registered two cases each and Maina-Curtorim, Verna, Mardol and Mormugao police stations booked one case each.
In comparison, 2022 saw a total of 24 cases booked by police stations across South Goa. Of these, six cases were booked by Vasco police, five by Margao police, four by Ponda police, and three by Verna police.
Canacona police booked two cases and Mormugao, Curchorem, Fatorda and Maina-Curtorim police stations each booked one case.
Salcete, which has five police stations, booked 10 cases under the NDPS Act in 2021, while in the first 10 months of 2020, 17 cases were booked and further in the year 2019, 31 cases were booked in just 10 months.
Out of 10 cases booked by Salcete police stations in 2021, four were booked by Margao police, three by Colva police, two by Fatorda police and one was registered by Cuncolim police. No cases were registered by Maina-Curtorim police in 2021.
In 2019 Salcete police had booked 31 cases in 10 months, of which a maximum number of 16 cases were booked by Margao police, one by Maina-Curtorim police, five by Colva police, three by Cuncolim and six by Fatorda police.
Police claimed that the number of cases has dropped and said that to keep a check on the drug menace, they have focused on a two-pronged strategy of conducting raids, booking cases and holding regular awareness drives.
In the year 2018, 77 cases were booked while in the year 2017, 60 cases were booked by police in South Goa, of which the highest number of 17 cases was booked by Margao police followed by 16 by Ponda police, 12 by Vasco police and six each by Colva and Canacona police. Besides these, four cases were booked by Verna, three each by Cuncolim, Fatorda and Curchorem police, while two each were booked by Maina-Curtorim and Collem police stations. One case each was booked by Quepem, Sanguem and Mormugao.
Some months ago, a memorandum was handed over to the Cuncolim police by villagers who said they were facing a ‘nightmare’ due to the terror of drug peddlers. According to the group of villagers, the peddlers target youth and school-going children.
According to a senior citizen, a strong police commitment to aggressively enforce anti-narcotics law will strengthen the resolve to deal with the problem. While poor manpower, lack of drug detection training and some avoidable procedural delays may be hampering the effectiveness of the drug prevention efforts, the drug menace has to be kept under total control, the citizen said.
