Of late, doubts are being expressed at every quarter whether the Jagan Mohan Reddy Government turned into a fence to safeguard the ganja plantations, asked TDP general secretary, Nara Lokesh, on Wednesday.
Observing that funds were being released earlier annually for destroying ganja plantations, Lokesh, in a press note released here, asked as to why such funds are not released after Jagan Mohan Reddy has become the Chief Minister. Expressing serious concern that abuse of ganja and other drugs is alarmingly on the rise in the State, Lokesh said wherever ganja was seized in any part of the country the roots are from the State.
“The State Government which is supposed to control the abuse of ganja is simply sitting idle which is giving room for various doubts,” Lokesh said. Whichever party is in power, every December funds are released to destroy the ganja plantations and farms across the Andhra-Odisha border, he said, adding that this operation is performed with the cooperation from the Excise, Police, Revenue, Mining and other wings of both Andhra Pradesh and from the neighbouring Odisha.
“During the TDP regime, funds were released every December for all the five years to destroy these ganja plantations on a largescale across the border of the two States,” the TDP general secretary mentioned in the press note. What is surprising is that though it is almost five years since the YSRCP came to power not even a single year budget was allocated for this purpose, he stated.
At least the officials concerned did not conduct any review meeting on the alarming growth of ganja plantations, he said. It is really shameful that Andhra Pradesh has turned into a ganja hub transformed the State into a capital for drug abuse, Lokesh said.
The TDP general secretary is of the strong opinion that the ruling YSRCP leaders are behind the ganja smuggling from the State due to which the operations generally cnducted in December every year to destroy the ganja plantations are totally brought to a halt. Lokesh demanded a clear answer from the Chief Minister and his Government for all these issues.
