VISAKHAPATNAM: The AP police will destroy a huge quantity of dry ganja seized from various places during transportation across the state in the next three days.
The police seized 2.45 lakh kgs of ganja worth 245 crore this year, including 1.80 lakh kg alone from the north coastal Andhra districts mainly Alluri Sitarama Raju and Anakapalli. More than 70% of ganja seized in AP has come from Odisha.
It is the biggest operation of ganja destruction in the country for the second time by the AP police in eight months. It may be recalled that in undivided Visakhapatnam district the police burnt two lakh kgs of ganja worth Rs 200 crore on February 12 this year.
As part of the destruction of the ganja, Eluru range police on Friday burnt 64,832 kgs of ganja seized in 465 cases in East Godavari, Kakinada, Konaseema, Eluru, West Godavari, and Krishna districts.
More than 1.8 lakh kgs of seized ganja from Alluri district (1.35 lakh kgs), Anakapalli (35,000 to 40,000 kgs), Vizianagaram (9,000 kgs), Srikakulam (4,000 kgs), and Parvathipuram Manyam district (2,000 kgs) worth Rs 180 crore would be put on fire at an isolated place at Koduru near Anakapalli district on Saturday.
A round 25,000 kg of ganja seized in Visakhapatnam city and Vijayawada city would be burnt on Sunday and 16,000 kg of ganja seized in Kurnool and Anantapur ranges would be set on fire on Monday.
It has taken two days for the police to shift the ganja from the different police stations in the north Andhra districts in more than 60 vehicles. This huge quantity of cannabis was seized in 900 cases. Each kg ganja would fetch the smugglers Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 in the open market. Additional director-general, law and order, and Special Enforcement Bureau commissioner Ravi Sankar Ayyannar and Visakha range DIG Harikrishna would participate in the destruction of the ganja.
Alluri Sitarama Raju district superintendent of police S Satish Kumar told TOI that they seized 1.80 lakh kg of ganja in 555 cases by arresting 250 accused. “The joint teams destroyed the ganja crop in more than 7,000 acres under Operation Parivartan. The government supplied seed of various commercial crops to the tribals for alternative crop cultivation,” he said.
DGP K Rajendranath Reddy in a press release said that they have taken up an action plan to curtail the ganja transportation in 2023 by focusing the network that is supplying ganja to school students and college students. Cops would also take up various policy decisions over curtailing ganja cultivation, transport, control measures, and others. A special campaign of awareness with hoardings at all colleges with SEB Toll-Free number would be taken up in the new year, the DGP said.
“Our department found ganja cultivation in 480 acres in undivided Visakhapatnam district and East Godavari districts in November in the first phase and 120 acres in December in the second phase with the help of modern technology and satellite images. Our special forces destroyed 600 acres of ganja crop in five days,” the DGP Rajendra Nath Reddy said.
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