Police and excise personnel on Tuesday burnt ganja plants worth over Rs8 crore cultivated illegally on 68 acres of forest land at Ramaguda and Darangiguda villages under the Adaba police station in Ganjapati district.
On the diriection of Gajapati SP Susil Kuamr Panigrahi, a joint team of Adaba police and excise officials went on a spree of setting ganja plants on fire from Tuesday morning to evening. The plants were fully grown up and were ready to be harvested. Hand not these plants been destroyed, mafias would have harvested it in a week’s time and sold it outside the State, an official said.
It may be noted that the police and excise personnel teams had burnt ganja plants worth Rs7 crore from 32 acres of land in Guluba gram panchayat on November 25 and 1.30 lakh ganja plants from 65 acres at Sundardang village under R Udayagiri block of the district on November 27. A total of Rs25-crore worth ganja has been burnt to ashes in the district in five days.
On Wednesday’s raids, a total of 140 police and excise personnel led by R Udayagri SDPO Rabindra Barik, Additional Tehsildar Ashok Tripathi, Excise Sub-Inspector Pradeep Patnaik and Mohana PS IIC Debabrata Chakra conducted raids and burnt the plants.