Hyderabad: After achieving the goal of gudamba-free Hyderabad, the excise and prohibition department is concentrating on curbing ganja trade.
Special teams have been formed to crush the ganja trade that had, till Friday, registered six cases. A study by Excise officials found that most of the ganja was coming from Dhoolpet and Nanakramguda.
Assistant Excise superintendent N. Anji Reddy said the department had identified ganja peddlers in Dhoolpet. Whenever they got ganja supplies, the teams would raid them. “Most of the ganja supplied in the city comes from Dhoolpet,” he said.
As the sale of ganja earns them more money, a few families which had stopped manufacturing gudamba had taken to peddling the narcotic. They used to get ganja from Araku, Chodavaram and other parts of the Visakhapatnam Agency areas.
Mr. Anji Reddy estimated that about 100 kg of ganja was being sold in the city per day. “We are concentrating on the transport of ganja to the city. A few families visit the Visakha Agency area to procure ganja and a few others get it from some middlemen,” he said.
Elaborate planning, efforts brought change
Police and Excise officers said they had adopted a multi-pronged strategy to choke the illegal liquor business at Dhoolpet. They could not control the brewers directly due to resistance, mainly from women, Excise officials targeted their customers and sale points across the city. They also choked the supply points which used to provide jaggery for illicit brewing. The police pitched in to train unemployed youth for competitive exams in the police.
According to officials, till a year ago women would normally re-start brewing illicit liquor after every rehabilitation drive.
An officer said that out of around 1,500 families which used to make illicit liquor, every house had at least one woman who had lost her husband. The women brewed gudumba and their husbands supplied it to customers. They would ride their bikes so fast that many were killed in accidents.
“Rehabilitation cannot stop crime. All these days we tried to offer benefits for rehabilitation, which did not work. So we started striking at the root,” a senior Excise officer said.
A police officer at Mangalhat said they had drawn up plans for the unemployed youth after analysing their background. Around that time, in August last year, the notification was issued to recruit constables.
“We arranged a pre-recruitment training programme for around 400 youth from Dhoolpet. Soon, others joined and the number kept rising. As the exam was delayed, the training was conducted for more than a year, which included physical and other aspects,” Mangalhat inspector R. Srinivas said.
“We are proud that about 400 candidates qualified in the test, and around 40 of them are from Dhoolpet and there are more than 10 girls,” he said.
