Chhattisgarh: ‘Nijaat’ rids Koriya residents of drugs, alcohol addiction

RAIPUR: Prakash Singh*, 30, who was abandoned by his wife and kid due to his liquor and substance addiction, was feeling extremely helpless to return to an empty house and nothing other than alcohol would serve his restlessness until he was aided with counselling and deaddiction therapy. After few months of medication, his family is back and happy. Abiding by Chhattisgarh chief minister’s orders to run anti-drug campaign by not allowing a leaf of cannabis inside the state, the Koriya police in its extensive fight against narcotics and substance abuse, has arrested more than 150 persons against 130 cases registered under NDPS Act while extending non-residential rehabilitation assistance to the needy. The ‘Nijaat’ (riddance) campaign launched by Koriya police has been acknowledged and appreciated by many Bollywood actors in the past five months. Initiated by Koriya superintendent of police Santosh Singh, ‘Nijaat’ as a mission was launched in July and seeping into the rural areas of the district, police have lodged a total of 887 cases with arrest of 923 persons under excise and NDPS Act.“Aiming to create an addiction free district, the campaign extends from curbing the crime by arresting drug peddlers to spreading awareness on village level against consumption and riddance of alcohol, drugs, ganja, substance abuse. ‘Nijaat’ gives helping hand to those willing to quit addiction of such sort by providing regular counselling and medications,” SP Santosh Singh said. People, mainly women, are voluntarily joining the campaign and are participating in wall-writing and reporting the police about suspicious activities as well as informing about people who need assistance for deaddiction. Celebrities like Kailash Kher, Bhagwan Tiwari and Prabhu Deva joined the campaign and released their videos on social media advocating to quit drugs and alcohol while local folk artists, including Teejan Bai, Mamta Chandrakar, Zakir Hussain, Yogesh Agrawal and actors from Chhollywood (Chhattisgarh cinema) like Anuj Sharma have also been spreading awareness persuading people to keep away from addiction. TOI scanned through several case studies of people aged between 18 to 50 years who in the past five months have been on a de-addiction journey and leading a fulfilling life with family.Life in villages gets worse when the youths and men of family indulge into abuse of any kind as they stop going to work and demand money in stead from the women who slog day long to make ends meet. Most happy are the village women who are part of the Nijaat brigade assisting police in spreading the word and yielding results. Recently, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel during a conference with SPs and IGs of state, had directed officials to intensify vigilance on borders and focus towards prevention of drugs and peddlers.