The State Government has spent Rs1.9 crore for creating awareness against drug use among two lakh students in 874 general colleges and 103 technical colleges in State in 2014-15.
Besides, the Government has targeted to launch such a campaign among youths reading Plus II, Plus III and in technical education by incurring an expenditure of Rs2.60 crore in the current academic session. About five lakh students would be brought into the loop this way, informed Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Sudam Marandi on a question by Dilip Ray.
Though Marandi failed to inform on how many villages have been made drug-free as per a Youth Policy launched in 2013 in the State, he said the Government has been working relentlessly to save the youths from falling drug addicts and in that direction, drug prevention centres have been opened at the SCB Medical College Hospital besides in a few district headquarters hospitals. He further said that in a joint initiative of the State and the Centre, another three such centres are going to be opened at Mayurbhanj, Koraput and Balangir.