A combined operation by the Narcotics Control Bureau’s Chandigarh zonal unit, the Amritsar Customs Commissionerate with its local prevention station, and the police destroyed illicit cannabis growing on 500 bighas in the Anni, Khanag, Manikaran and Nagar areas of Kullu district between 27 and 31 October 2002.[1] The drive was launched on the initiative of Customs Commissioner Bhattacharjee, and the 104-member team comprised 53 customs officials, 20 NCB officials from Chandigarh and Delhi, and 31 police officials.[1]
NCB Zonal Director Rakesh Goyal and Superintendent of Police N. Venu Gopal said at a joint press conference that local people had volunteered to help educate growers, who were urged to shift to agro-horticulture crops suited to the area’s soil and environment.[1] Goyal said the NCB had offered to finance a sustainable alternative-livelihood scheme through an international agency if villagers stopped growing cannabis, and that the NCB Director-General had asked the state government for such a proposal, which was still awaited.[1]
Goyal said action against officials who failed to report illicit cultivation could be taken under Section 47 of the NDPS Act, but the agencies preferred education over direct action for now.[1] He added that no action had been taken against anybody so far for growing cannabis on private or government land.[1]
