Awareness on drugs need of the hour, says MGSIPAdirector

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 18

The Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration (MGSIPA), in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, on Monday organised a workshop on “Drug abuse prevention for police functionaries” at the Police Lines here.

Police officers of different ranks, including inspectors, SHOs and in-charges of police stations of Faridkot district, participated in the workshop.

Interacting with the participants, Regional Project Director, MGSIPA, Bathinda, Jarnail Singh emphasised the need for adopting a professional approach to check illegal trafficking of drugs from across the border. He recommended taking effective measures to generate awareness of the dangerous effects of drug abuse, in a sustained and result-oriented manner.

He said the police must make efforts to develop a community-based system for the prevention of drug abuse by active involvement of stake-holders and social voluntary organisations.

He said MGSIPA had organised a series of programmes, involving teachers, youth and police officials, to generate awareness of the ill-effects of drug abuse. He said lecture sessions — on steps to check the flow of drugs, treatment of drug abuse victims and their respectful rehabilitation in society by involving NGOs and presentations by legal experts, psychologists and psychiatrists — were arranged in every programme.

On the occasion, Jastinder Singh, DSP (Faridkot), spoke on the subject of “Smuggler’s modus operandi and Challenges for Punjab Police in War of Drugs” and highlighted various steps being taken by the police to eradicate this social evil from society. The other experts who joined the lecture sessions included Harish Sharma, a Psychology team from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College Kotkapura, Munish Kumar Khunger, assistant professor, Baba Farid Law College Faridkot, Ranjeet, in-charge, Drug Abuse Centre, Civil Hospital, Faridkot.