Thiruvananthapuram: Three months into the V.D. Satheesan government, state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala’s signature campaign is emerging as one of its biggest public-impact initiatives.
When Chennithala returned to the Home portfolio after a gap of a decade, he did not take long to identify what he believed was the most urgent battle facing Kerala, the state’s rapidly spreading drug menace.
Three months into the Satheesan government, Operation Toofan, conceived and driven by Chennithala, is beginning to provide him with numbers that underline the scale of the campaign.
As of date since the campaign began, 9,085 cases have been registered and 9,795 arrests made so far; the operation has emerged as one of the government’s most visible interventions against the drug network operating across the state.
The latest statewide crackdown on Saturday added 38 more cases and 38 arrests.
The seizures so far include 7,460.567 grams of MDMA, 961.450 kg of ganja and 4,720.909 grams of hashish oil.
But Toofan was conceived as more than a police operation. For several years, Kerala has watched with growing alarm as drug abuse moved from being a problem discussed in police stations to one being confronted inside homes.
News reports of school and college students falling prey to narcotics, youngsters becoming users and, in some cases, turning into carriers for quick money, have made the issue a deeply personal one for thousands of families.
It was against this backdrop that Chennithala chose the drug menace as one of his priorities after taking charge.
Now at 70 years of age, and with the experience of having entered the State Cabinet when he was 28 under the late K. Karunakaran, Chennithala has sought to combine political experience with a campaign designed to take the fight beyond the police force.
He travelled across the state, interacted with people from different walks of life and sought to create a community-based resistance by enrolling them as ‘Toofan Warriors’.
The idea was simple: the fight against drugs cannot be left to the police alone.
The latest figures suggest that the campaign has developed a substantial preventive and awareness component alongside enforcement.
On a single day, Kerala Police conducted 65 awareness classes across the state, taking the cumulative number to 8,994.
As many as 564 counselling sessions have also been conducted, while school and college Protection Groups have organised 6,482 awareness programmes.
The latest round of cases included 10 for possession of small quantities and one involving a medium quantity, besides 27 cases under the NDPS Act and 16 under COTPA.
Police also seized 3.343 kg of ganja from those booked.
For Chennithala, Toofan is consequently becoming more than a government programme.
It is turning into a political statement that the battle against drugs must be fought simultaneously on the streets, in educational institutions and inside homes.
Three months may be too early for victory claims. But if the numbers are any indication, the Home Minister’s first major battle under the Satheesan government has certainly begun to gather momentum.
(IANS)
