Team Herald
MARGAO: South Goa Superintendent of Police Arvind Gawas on Monday said he wanted to make the district drug-free as much as possible and plans to complete the migrant verification procedure in the district by this year so that each and every migrant living in South Goa has his or her antecedents verified.
The police stations in South Goa booked as many as 60 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances act last year as against the 13 booked in 2016. The highest number of cases being 16 was booked at Margao Town police station followed by Vasco police station where 14 cases were booked and Canacona where 19 cases were booked.
Mormugao, Vasco Railway and Fatorda police stations each registered only one drug case last year followed by Colva, Cuncolim, Quepem, Curchorem where all registered two cases.
Police seized drugs worth around Rs 29.18 lakh, with the highest haul being of ganja worth Rs 23.48 lakh. Charas worth Rs 1.30 lakh, hashish worth Rs 1.44 lakh, LSD worth Rs 1.36 lakh, Ecstasy tablets worth Rs 1 lakh and cocaine worth Rs. 60,000 was also seized.
He highlighted that the Colva Police could solve the Varca murder case only because the migrant verification was completed and they had all details of the murderers and even before the Goan police team could reach Jharkhand the police there was informed about the case.
He said in the last year the 16 police stations under his jurisdiction had verified the antecedents of 32,675 tenants with the highest number being 9,052 done by Verna police station that has jurisdiction over the industrial estate,
Verna was followed Colva where 5,364 migrants were verified and Ponda, where 5,353 tenants were verified. The least number to be verified were at Collem police station where only 369 were verified.
Incidentally, police have referred 741 cases to the to the Sub Divisional Magistrate for action to be taken against the owner for violating the order issued by the Collector for providing information of migrants.
While 149 such cases have been referred in Canacona 114 cases are referred in Ponda and only four cases are referred in Fatorda where the figure is low probably because the police station is only three months old.
“Police stations at Sanguem and Collem have nearly finished the verification of all migrants and we plan to complete the procedure in other police stations as soon as possible,” he said.
