KOZHIKODE: It has been proved that Narcotic Cells, set up in all districts by the Kerala Police to handle the cases of possession, use and trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances are ineffective in checking the rising trend in the use and trafficking of drugs.The Narcotic Cells, which were established in all the police districts in Kerala in the year 1994, have created no major change in the scenario. The department suffers from lack of manpower, along with the lack of infrastructure facilities. Only an officer of DySP rank and a maximum of five constables have been provided for the cell in the districts. “There is only a single Head Constable along with me in the department.We do not have an office or any kind of infrastructure needed to carry out the investigations or collection of intelligence needed to trace the narcotics trade in the District,” said K Radhakrishnan, who is a senior DySP of the state and in charge of the Narcotic Cell of the district.While District Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar says, “The Narcotics Cell has only the monitoring function of the trade and traffic of drugs in the district. The intelligence for the narcotics department is mostly provided from the regular intelligence collected by the police.” But the concerned officers think that regular criminal intelligence and security intelligence collected by the police are not sufficient to track down the drug trade.At present, local police stations nab criminals who carry very small amount of drugs with the limited intelligence they receive in the normal investigations. “Without sufficient manpower, no major trafficking can be traced. Actually, it is a shame for a police officer in the rank of DySP to be heading a department that has no provision of work,” said Radhakrishnan. It is also to be noted that the cases of use of drugs among the youngsters in the state has been on the rise for the last three years. “The Central Bureau of Narcotics is working efficiently in the state as they have a good amount of funds with them. While the Narcotics Cell in the state has limited fund for utilisation, which weakens the strength of the department,” said M Shekharan, who is charge of the Narcotic Cell of Tiruvanathapuram.“At present, we are working with the limited resources that we have in our hands.But can someone imagine a major breakthrough by the department in the area with only five police officers in hand in every district,” said DySp Joseph Saju, who is in charge of the Narcotics Cell in Kochi.
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