1, 837 acres of poppy plantations destroyed this year

Pothashang News Service: Imphal, March 10, 2018: In Manipur poppy plantations that would produce opium worth around Rs. 128 crores 59 lakhs have been destroyed so far this year during opium plants destruction operations.

The operations have been conducted by Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) with the support of state police force, customs and central para-military forces and state officials including horticulture and forest department officials.

Today a team led by NCB and NAB destroyed poppy plantations at Hangoipat in Imphal East. Eighty-three acres of poppy farms was destroyed in the operation. Today’s destruction would worth Rs. 5 crore 81 lakhs.

So far the joint operation has destroyed 1, 837 acres of poppy plantations at 36 locations, said superintendent of NAB S. Basu while briefing the reporters at his office in Imphal. Last year 446 acres of poppy farms were destroyed. “We will continue our drive and we will find out the owners of the plantations soon”, he added.

NCB Imphal superintendent Vikash Kumar said apart from this opium plantation in the state, large quantities of drugs popularly known as WY tablets and Heroine have been flowing in India through the Indo-Myanmar border. Ganja is still flowing to other parts of India from Manipur. From India many pharmatical drugs are going Psychotropic substances mainly pseudoephedrine and Spasmo Proxyvon tablet. This area being international border is very sensitive. The security forces have been frequently preventing drug trafficking with seizures and apprehension of drug traffickers in the state, he added.

Day to day we are tied up with the Assam Rifles, the customs at the border with the district police, central government is giving assistance to the state police for better enforcement capability. We conduct coordination meeting at the central and state level regularly to sensitize the issue, said Vikash.