Opium destruction drive in N Bengal

MALDA, Feb 20: Acting on intelligence reports, the Deputy Commissioner of Excise (Preventive) in Jalpaiguri division has started the destruction of illegal opium cultivation in the six north Bengal districts. The excise officials, accompanied by police personnel and narcotic cell officials from Kolkata, uprooted and destroyed opium plants cultivated in 10 acres of land at Pukuria under Ratua police station area yesterday. The team has detected another large plot of land at Kadamtali under the same police station area today and began destruction of the plants there. Besides Ratua, intelligence officials of the Central Detective Department (Excise) have been deployed across the district to identify opium plantations for its destruction. The deputy commissioner of Excise (Preventive) in the Jalpaiguri division, Mr PT Bhutia, has been staying in the region for the past three days to collect information and identify the opium cultivation lands in the district. Mr Bhutia will leave for North Dinajpur district this evening to assist the Excise Department in the destruction of opium cultivation there. The district police officials have also deployed parallel informers in their respective police stations to collect information on opium cultivation. n SNS