New anti-drug campaign launched in Alappuzha

Alappuzha: The district child welfare committee,  along with the state social welfare board,  has launched an anti-drug awareness programme christened  ‘Our Responsibility to Children’ (ORC), in the schools in the district.

Mr K.C. Venugopal MP, who inaugurated the project, said that the ganja mafia was targeting schools and colleges. “The project will help parents and teachers handle the issue psychologically and aid the children’s personality development. In the first phase,  five schools in the district would be selected,” he said and added that all schools should be made part of the project from  the next academic year onwards.     

The  scheme comes in addition to the  administration’s ‘Vimukti’ launched to make the district tobacco and drugs-free  and the government’s ‘Clean Campus, Safe Campus’ campaign.

According to CWC data, out of at least 420 cases registered with the committee last year, about 60 percent  deals with  drug abuse. “The rest is based on the misuse of mobile phones and internet and harassment in  families.”

The CWC programme includes counselling, awareness campaigns and seminars in all selected schools. The volunteers of  Childline will take part in the  programme to identify the children addicted to drugs and tobacco. The Vimukti  introduced in 2010 is being implemented through panchayats, municipalities, schools, teachers, student counsellors and school health officials.

The ‘Clean Campus, Safe Campus’ campaign has set up Special Operation Groups (SOGs) in all the 32 police stations in the district under an assistant sub-inspector. The squad  conducted over  2,462 raids and arrested 439 drug peddlers. It  registered 423 cases and seized drugs worth Rs 13, 82, 467 during the raids last year.