Shillong, Nov 12: Former IPS officer, FG Kharshiing, on Monday took charge as the new Mission Director of the Drug Reduction Elimination & Action Mission (DREAM) and emphasized on the importance of community participation in the fight against the problem of drug menace in Meghalaya.
After calling on the social welfare minister Paul Lyngdoh at his office chamber, Kharshiing said that the state government is keen to fight the drug menace through the DREAM to ensure a drug free Meghalaya.
“This is my first call on the minister incharge and we discussed a few suggestions on how to go about it at the moment. I have apprised the minister that although I am starting off without a room, a chair and without proper support staff but I am not concerned with all those, we are hitting the ground running and I have already called a meeting of few concerned citizens including headmen, NGOs, students day after tomorrow on November 13 at the social welfare office,” he said.
“The (subject matter) is very close to my heart. I want to see our state free of drugs, which is why I accepted this post. I will try my best. Though I have to be very frank about this, that results cannot be seen in a day or a month or a year but we will start something and we will try our best to move ahead with the project,” Kharshiing added.
Asked, the mission director said community participation is very important in the fight against drug menace.
“…as part of the government and DREAM project, we have to raise maximum awareness about this and this can only be achieved with working with the community and society at large, NGOs, with users and rehab centres…we will hit the ground running. We will be moving very fast and as fast as I can, I will interact with people at large,” he added.
Fully endorsing the idea of making anti-narcotic task force (ANTF) as a separate dedicated police team to tackle drug trafficking in the state, Kharshiing said, “As a former police officer, I fully agree with what the government is suggesting that there should be a separate task force. The policemen are really overwhelmed with other jobs and crimes but this is a pressing issue.”
At the moment, this is a pressing issue of the state in the rising number of users and the flow of drugs in our state. This should be combatted. If we can do this project and other awareness campaigns partly we should be able to fight this drug menace through the police department also,” he added further.
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