In a bid to keep a check on road accidents by inebriated drivers in the state, the Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana is mulling to make drunken driving, resulting into the death of the victim, a non-bailable offence.
This was announced by Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ram Bilas Sharma on Wednesday while replying to a calling attention motion in the State Assembly on the issue of liquor and drug addiction.
The Minister also said that the State Government is starting a new program, namely, Police Cadet Corp with a view to engage the state's youth in nation building activities. The government will also initiate a large scale recruitment drive in police department in the month of April to engage youth of the state, he added.
Congress MlA Karan Dalal, who had moved the calling attention motion seeking government’s reply on illegal sale of liquor, opium, smack and other drugs, said that illegal and illicit liquor is openly sold in small shops in villages all over the state which is spoiling the youth of Haryana.
The consumption of illegal and illicit liquor due to its easy availability is also affecting their health. It would not be surprising that the situation of youth of Haryana would get worse than Punjab in case these illegal activities are allowed to go as is rampant now, said the Congress leader.
leader of opposition and INlD’s senior leader Abhay Chautala said that the youth are getting addicted to drugs and indulging in illegal activities for easy money. Incidents like chain snatching, robbery are also increasing due to the drug menace, said he.
Chautala also alleged that police personnel are involved in helping liquor and drug mafia and are doing nothing to deal with them.
In his reply, the Minister Ram Bilas Sharma informed the House that during the year 2017, a total of 14,668 criminal cases have been registered against persons indulging in illicit liquor trade and almost all the accused persons have been arrested and the smuggled liquor has been seized.
During this period, a total of 8,84,256 bottles of smuggled licit liquor, 38,702 bottles of illicit liquor, 7,61,047 bottles of English wine, 73,910 bottles of beer and 22 working stills have been seized, he said.
The Minister said that the government is serious on the matter of illicit sale as well as the illicit use of intoxicating substances such as liquor, opium, poppy husk, ganja, charas, heroin and smack. It is incorrect to state that there is no check on this menace by the concerned authorities. lnfact, a multi pronged approach has been adopted on the issue by the authorities with a view to prevent, detect and punish the criminals indulging in such illegal activities, he claimed.
During the year 2017, a total of 2,247 criminal cases have been registered against narcotic drug criminals. Almost all the accused persons have been arrested and quantity totalling 86.28 Kg opium, 124.736 Kg charas, 9549.65 Kg poppy husk, 9.494 Kg smack, 4367.881 Kg ganja and 3.918 Kg heroin has been seized from them, said Sharma.
On measures taken to keep a check on drug abuse, he said that the State Government had established a Special Task Force on October 3, 2017 with a view to detect and investigate the various criminal activities including manufacture and supply of narcotic substances and drugs, illicit arms and counterfeit currency, cases of extorting and kidnapping and abduction for ransom, inter gang wars/shoot outs and contract killings, sensational cases of dacoity and robbery, and cases related to terrorism or having interstate ramifications.
And, special campaigns are being launched on a regular basis to detect liquor smuggling and narcotics smuggling. One such campaign has recently been launched from December 14, 2017 to January 15, 2018, he added.
The Minister further said that the government will ensure continuous crackdown on the criminals and nefarious elements found indulging in sale, manufacture or smuggling of illicit drugs and illicit liquor.
The authorities are making their best possible efforts to completely eradicate the drug menace in the state. Strict action is being taken against any government servant found conniving with the liquor/drug smugglers, he added.
The opposition also demanded a ban on the DJ music as it is leading to noise pollution in the state.
Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu also urged the Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar to issue directions so that the deadline to play DJ music till 10 pm is strictly implemented in the State.
The Speaker then assured that instructions will be issued in this regard.