Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday announced a major two-pronged offensive against the alarming rise in the use of narcotic drugs especially among the youth. The Opposition UDF pledged unconditional support.
On the one hand, Kerala will strengthen the implementation of existing laws so that habitual offenders could be held in preventive detention and even get a death sentence. Simultaneously, the government would launch a comprehensive state-level awareness campaign that will focus mainly on throwing protective social cordons around educational institutions.
"There should be certain changes in the way narcotic cases are registered," the Chief Minister told the Assembly while responding to an adjournment motion moved in the Assembly by Congress MLA P C Vishnunath on growing use of psychotropic substances. While moving his motion, Vishnunath painted a grim and scary picture of drug use in Kerala. "In the last one-and-a-half years, 3933 persons have been admitted to de-addiction centres in Kerala. More than 40 per cent of this are teenagers below 18 years," he said.
The Chief Minister agreed that the situation was grave. If in 2021 5334 cases were registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, by August this year 17,834 cases have already been registered.
The Chief Minister felt that merely registering cases was not enough. "We do not have the practice of mentioning the earlier crimes of the accused when a chargesheet in a drug case is submitted before a court. This is necessary to secure maximum punishment for the accused under sections 31 and 31(A) of the NDPS Act," the Chief Minister said.
Section 31 of the Act deals with enhanced punishment for people who had been convicted earlier under the Act. A habitual offender will get one-and-a-half times the punishment prescribed under the Act, and this can go up to 18 years. Section 31(A) speaks of death penalty for offences like the production, manufacture, export, import and even the possession beyond a certain quantity of drugs like heroin, cocaine, morphine, MDMA, LSD and hashish.
"We should ensure that habitual offenders get the maximum punishment," the Chief Minister said.
He said the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT in NDPS) Act, 1988, should be invoked to keep habitual offenders in detention without trial for two years. "We are not making use of this provision of the Act," the Chief Minister said.
Under Section 3 of the Act, such a preventive detention order could be passed only by officer not below the rank of a joint secretary. The Chief Minister said the police and the excise had been directed to furnish the necessary recommendations in this regard to the official concerned.
There is yet another provision in the NDPS Act the government is intent on enforcing. "Under Section 34 of the NDPS Act, the convicted person can be made to execute a bond saying he would abstain from committing any offences under this Act," the Chief Minister said. "We are going to make this bond mandatory," he said.
Further, the Chief Minister said a databank of all offenders, including first timers, would be created for the state and this would be updated in a timely fashion. He said the history sheets would be drawn up by police stations and excise range offices. "These history sheeters would be under constant surveillance," Vijayan said.
The Chief Minister said a special drive enforcing the various provisions of the NDPS and PIT in NDPS acts would be launched in the state immediately.
The anti-drug awareness campaign will start to coincide with Gandhi Jayanti on October 2. The basic attempt is to form narcotic resistance groups at the levels of individual schools and local bodies. A draft of the proposed narcotic resistance groups will be drawn up by September 15.
The Chief Minister said any shops found selling drugs near schools would be shut down forever. He also said that local shops near educational institutions should prominently display anti-drug posters, which would have the names and numbers of officials who should be contacted when instances of drug sale or abuse are spotted. The identity of the informer, the Chief Minister said would be kept a secret.
Opposition Leader V D Satheesan offered full support to the government's actions. He also had a suggestion to keep the youth away from drugs.
He said Kerala should do what Haryana did to prevent its youth from falling headlong into the drug culture so prevalent in neighbouring Punjab. "Haryana effected a substantial step up in sports infrastructure. Suddenly sports and fitness became the overriding concerns of the youth in that state," Satheesan said.
