By Kaimuanthang
Churachandpur, May 21 : In a bid to make Churachandpur district drug free, officials from the district administration, security forces, civil societies including NGOs, politicians and church level leaders joined hands and put their heads together today at an impressive function held at 27 Sector Headquarters of the Assam Rifles located at Tuibuong from about 10 am.
The programme was attended as special guest by the IPR and PHED minister TN Haokip, MTDC chairman T Manga Vaiphei MLA, T Hangkhanpau MLA from the 60 Singngat A/C , Jacintha Lazarus IAS DC/Churachandpur, Maj Gen DS Hooda, GOC who flew in to attend the gathering, besides leaders of the NGOs who were directly or indirectly related to the treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS apart from student union leaders and students.
TN Haokip who spoke on the occasion as special guest pointed out that the reported cultivation of poppy with the ulterior motive of getting easy money is like laying a mine of death for the residents of Churachandpur.
He said it is time to find an alternative means for earning income and positive means of livelihood while adding that cultivation of the crop at Thangching Hill ranges will soon cause depletion of forest and also the water resources.
Urging the gathering to join hands in the fight against poppy cultivation and other menaces arising out of drugs, Haokip pointed out that even now the Lanva and Koite river are on the brink of getting totally depleted.
T Manga Vaiphei, MLA while addressing the function regretted the existence of poppy cultivation in his constituency while accepting moral responsibility for the same.
He held certain factors responsible for the incident which among others include the people’s wanting to get easy money, lack of good road connectivity in the interiors and peripheral regions like Henglep area which has been taken as an advantage by people residing in the far flung areas under the impression that there is no security coverage etc.
Assuring to cooperate as best as he could in the fight against the menace he stressed the need for providing alternative sources of livelihood to those who have already taken up the work as a profession.
T Hangkhanpau, MLA while giving his address thanked the 27th Sector AR Commander Surendra Mehta for organizing such an ambitious programme and venture.
Unlike most of his preceding speakers, he pointed out arrest of the cultivators under the Narcotics Act may be easy but at times where there are variegated problems like famine due to extreme poverty plaguing the people and when ‘we cannot provide an alternative means to live for those people‘ such acts may not be the right solution.
Expressing his guilt over the existence of such practices in his constituencies he advocated for the creation of alternative means for the cultivators which if made available by authorities will help the practice stop forthwith.
Moving a step back over the issue, he said earlier if the practices are so bad as to cause such a harmful affects why the NGO leaders as well as tribe leaders didn’t organized a campaign for it to end in the initial stages.
He exhorted chiefs of all the villages to not allow their lands for cultivation of such crops while stating further that MLAs are there to help towards providing alternative sources.
Jacintha Lazarus, IAS DC/Churachandpur said in the northeast there are strong societal commitment of the people and as such there are no beggars and social evils like dowry deaths, besides many other advantages due to which she feels proud of working among them.
She urged all not to try to earn a living through activities which cause death and difficulty to others while pointing out the help extended to civil administration by the Army and in restoring the forest in its pure form.
The DC also assured to extend maximum cooperation to those farmers who wanted to take up other professions.
Maj General DS Hooda, GOC has said 40 percent of India’s Ganja is supplied from Manipur while disclosing that Churachandpur is also one of the most productive places of the drug and further said most of the seizures recently were brought from Churachandpur.
[ via The Imphal Free Press ]
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