Several key points of SOP yet to get due attention
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 24: All the departments, which are supposed to play key role in the implementation of Nasha Mukt Jammu and Kashmir Abhiyan, are unaware of number of Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) having been declared as Nasha Mukt even more than one year after the notification of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in this regard.
Vide Government Order No.1641-JK(GAD) dated December 20, 2023, the Government notified Standard Operating Procedure for declaring an area (Panchayat, Urban Local Body, Ward) as Nasha Mukt under the Nasha Mukt Jammu and Kashmir Abhiyan.
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In the SOP, objective criteria, actionable strategy and periodic review mechanism were elaborated.
As per the criteria, the cultivated area under any illicit crops (including area under illicit crops growing in wild) in the Panchayat, ULB and Ward must be zero; the area of Panchayat, ULB and Ward must be free from any activity relating to processing/manufacturing of any product which is banned under NDPS Act; no case of drug addiction should have been reported from the area in the last six months; no drug smuggler/ peddler is residing/operating in the area at the time of certification; no person in the area is booked, detained and convicted under NDPS Act at the time of certification; no person in the area is booked under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.
EXCELSIOR contacted officers of concerned departments to ascertain the number of Panchayats, ULBs or Ward having been declared as Nasha Mukt as per the Standard Operating Procedure. But, none was in a position to provide the information.
A senior officer of the Social Welfare Department said, “Rural Development Department or Directorate of Urban Local Bodies might be having this information”. However, an officer of the Rural Development Department said, “no such information has been furnished to us by the administration in the districts”.
Similarly, an officer of the Directorate of Urban Local Bodies said, “all out efforts are being made to implement Nasha Mukt Jammu and Kashmir Abhiyan. However, the information about declaration of ULB or Ward as Nasha Mukt is not available”.
The administration in several districts, when approached, said, “Social Welfare is the Nodal Department as far as implementation of Nasha Mukt Abhiyan is concerned. So, the department should have information about Nasha Mukt Panchayats or ULBs”.
This stance of the administration in several districts is notwithstanding the fact that overall monitoring of certification is required to be done by the District Level Committee upon receipt of recommendations from Tehsil Level Committees and Sub-Divisional Level Committees.
“The non-availability of the information is in spite of the fact that in the SOP it was clearly mentioned that Police, Social Welfare, Rural Development, Excise, Health and Medical Education, Revenue and School Education Departments should work in coordination and highlight the hazardous implications of drug menace”, sources said.
They further said, “what to talk of declaration of Nasha Mukt Panchayats or ULBs, several actionable points of SOP have yet not received due attention in several districts of the Union Territory”, adding “Gram Sabha on drug menace at least once in a month is not being organized and in many parts of the Union Territory hot spots and vulnerable population have yet not been identified for due attention”.
“No doubt in the educational institutions awareness programmes are organized but as far as Panchayats and ULB wards are concerned such activities are not regularly conducted despite the fact that as per the Standard Operating Procedure such programmes are required to be organized once in a month”, sources informed.
They stressed that all the concerned departments should work in tandem to achieve the objective of Nasha Mukt Jammu and Kashmir instead of putting ball in each other’s court.