‘Drug-Free Himachal’ app serves little purpose

Tribune News Service
Solan, November 21

The app on ‘Drug-Free Himachal’, launched with much fanfare by the Chief Minister on July 1, is not getting useful information regarding drug peddling.

A person can give information about the shipment of drugs, their storage, drug users as well as sellers by specifying the location of such elements. The information is received by the SP, Narcotics, as well as by a call centre entrusted with the task and then passed it on to the SP concerned. Police officials said they were yet to receive credible information which could help them nab such miscreants.

SSP, Narcotics, Ashok Kumar, said they were trying to create awareness about its use so that more people could come forward. Students were being encouraged to download this app and inform the police about the drug traders as they fell in the vulnerable category which were often targeted by drug traders.

Officials also said at times, the information uploaded on it was vague or pertained to personal rivalries. People were reporting other crimes too on this app.

Though directions were issued to all SPs to get more people download this app, this has not helped in popularising the app. With the number of people using this app still low, its use is yet to fetch dividends to the department.

Barely 467 persons had used the app to date and a majority of them were from Solan, Shimla and Kullu districts, while not a single user from the tribal districts of Lahaul and Spiti and Kinnaur had registered any complaint on this app till now.

A senior official said the trend of using android-based applications had declined and people were also hesitant to download apps for the fear of being spied upon by these.

Police officials also said a large number of the drug traders were also consumers. Hence, there were remote chances of such information being shared with the police. With semi-literate people like drivers being their consumers, they had little interest to download an app and assist the police about such miscreants. Such information was generally secured through the police’s own secret network and informers were also hesitant to come out in the open to reveal their identity.

As many as 135 persons were arrested in 90 cases by the Solan police till November first week this year.