Times of India
31 August 2010
By Rajiv Srivastava
Lucknow, India

The state capital, it seems, has become a safe haven for drug peddlars, addicts and suppliers in the past few years.

The seriousness of the menace could be gauged from the fact that on an average at least one drug peddler or an addict is caught by the police daily from various police station areas of Lucknow and the record of the past three months speaks volumes of the menace. Adding to the compounding problem of the drug menace is the fact that on an average, about 50 grams of drugs, including heroin and morphine etc, is being recovered from these arrested accused, also on a daily basis.

Take for example, arrest of these drug peddlers and addicts on August 21. Aminabad police arrested two persons identified as Maqsood, a resident of Talkatora police station area and Kallu, a native of Sitapur district from Najeebabad area. The police recovered 70 and 55 grams of smack, respectively from their possession.

Similarly, Naka Hindola police arrested a man identified as Raju near GRP Line and recovered an illegal knife and 7 grams of smack from his possession on Saturday.

Adding to it on Saturday only, Krishnanagar police arrested a man identified as Jhansi, a resident of Barigawan and a native of Hardoi and recovered 100 grams of illegal heroin, an illegal knife and a stolen rickshaw from his possession.

A police officer on condition of anonymity, however, said that the frequency with which cases of people being arrested with illegal drugs are being reported shows that it was time to ring alarm bells and check the source of drug menace rather than recovering small quantity of illegal drugs on daily basis and in anticipation of getting a pat on the back.

Also, he said, it is generally believed that there is more to it than meets the eye. Even though the recovery of illegal narcotics and subsequent arrest of these carriers have been reported from the police stations across the state capital, Kaiserbagh area is one place, which has been under the Lucknow police radar for illegal drug trade, however, without much success in the past.

It was more than a year ago, when the crime branch of Lucknow police’s effort to nab the drug traffickers from the area was met with heavy resistance and subsequently the drive was aborted.

DIG Rajeev Krishna said that narcotics related cases would be handed over to crime branch so that traffickers could be nabbed. Drugrelated cases have been reported in the state capital. However, the city was still away from becoming a major distribution centre. He admitted that cases of narcotics being seized in small quantity have been reported in the city in the past several few months.