Remove cigarette shops near schools & colleges: Panchkula MLA to police

Following complaints about cigarette and paan shops selling drugs to children in Panchkula, Haryana assembly speaker Gian Chand Gupta on Saturday directed the police department to remove cigarette shops around educational institutions in the district.

The direction was issued during a meeting of Panchkula Development Advisory Committee in Sector 5.

“Drug abuse is hollowing out the youth and it is necessary to curb it. To keep students away from drug abuse, cigarette and paan shops should be removed from around educational institutions immediately. We are getting complaints that these vendors are selling drugs to children in many areas,” said Gupta adding, “Students should be made aware of the ill effects of drugs in schools.”

The assembly speaker said information has been received that drugs are being sold in the name of ayurvedic medicines from vehicles at some places, following which he issued direction to investigate the illegally sold medicines.

On complaints of rampant drug abuse in Rajiv Colony and Indira Colony, Gupta directed the police department to crack down on drug abusers as well as drug suppliers. He said, “To completely eradicate drug abuse, the supply chain of drugs will have to be broken.”

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Himadree Kaushik said, “Under the Haryana Uday programme, people in the villages are being made aware of the ill effects of drugs through various activities. A target has been set to cover 5,000 people this month.” She said soon the police will start surprise inspections in schools and colleges.

DCP crime and traffic Virender Singh Sagwan said this month, 11 cases have been registered under the NDPS Act, out of which two cases are of commercial quality.

HSVP told not to allow illegal slums on govt land

To make Panchkula slum free, Gupta directed Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhkaran (HSVP) not to allow illegal slums on government land. “After sectors are made encroachment free by municipal corporation (MC) and HSVP,it is the responsibility of the police to ensure that there is no encroachment again,” he said.

To solve the problem of stray animals in the city, he directed MC to run a special campaign and catch stray animals from Rajiv and Indira Colony under Ghaggar Bridge. He directed the civic body to assess the capacity of all gaushalas to keep as many cows as possible in them.

77,900 challans issued to make Panchkula plastic free

In the meeting, MC commissioner Sachin Gupta said, “To make Panchkula plastic free, 77,900 challans have been issued in the last 15 months and ₹7.50 lakh has been recovered. Apart from this, 18 wholesale units manufacturing banned plastic have been closed.”

He said helpline number 9696-494-949 has been started by the MC for the citizen to send a complaint regarding garbage collection or any other problem on this number. The issue will be resolved by the corporation on the same day.