Annamayya Collector tells police to adopt zero-tolerance policy to curb drug abuse

Annamayya District Collector Nishanth Kumar on Friday (February 27) directed the police to intensify the drone-based surveillance and adopt a zero-tolerance policy to eradicate drug abuse in the district.

The Collector was chairing a meeting of the District Narcotics Coordination Committee (DNCC) at the Collectorate. Mr. Nishant Kumar called for immediate measures to prevent the sale and consumption of ‘Cool Lip’, a nicotine product that was reportedly found near a school campus at Chowdepalle near Madanapalle on Thursday, which led to the seizure of tobacco products worth ₹20 lakh.

The Collector instructed the Education Department to enforce the prohibition of tobacco products near educational institutions. Stressing the need to establish a de-addiction centre at Madanapalle, he said NGOs could coordinate with the officials concerned in setting up of a full-fledged facility.

Senior police officials informed the Collector that over 600 awareness programmes, including 3K runs and village-level campaigns, had been conducted across educational institutions in Annamayya district. The toll-free helpline 1972 was being extensively publicised to encourage reporting of drug-related activities.

Drone surveillance, deployment of trained sniffer dogs at bus stations, railway stations and other congested public spaces and implementation of ‘Operation Safe Campus’ were among the measures being taken, the police said.

Later, releasing the ‘Drugs Vaddu Bro’ campaign posters, Mr. Nishant Kumar highlighted the importance of counselling, mental health support and continuous post-rehabilitation monitoring to prevent relapse, and called for sustained inter-departmental coordination to eradicate drug abuse.