Though the previous Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy claimed to make Visakhapatnam as an administrative capital of the state, he succeeded in bringing a notorious name of `Ganja and Narcotics Capital of India’. Home Minister Vangalapudi Anitha, who hails from this district started working out to declare a war on Ganja, even before officially taking charge as Home Minister.
Having consultations with concerned officials in Visakhapatnam, she announced that soon she will set up a task force to check ganja menace in the state. She also said that in a week a toll free number will be provided to the people to complain on gajna movements, so as to curb its smuggling.
He conducted a review with District Collector A. Mallikarjuna, Police Commissioner Dr Ravishankar Ayyannar, Joint CP Fakirappa and top police officers of the city. She warned that those who want to live by selling ganja should change. Otherwise, there will be dire consequences.
It may be recalled that just ahead of recent elections, the seizure of a container of drugs at the Visakhapatnam port created a sensation. The finding of drugs in a container during the searches by the CBI officials created a great political uproar. YCP and TDP leaders have accused each other of being behind this.
Home Minister Anita said that the file related to the case of drugs found in Visakhapatnam port will be brought from CBI and state government will not leave people behind this massive scale smuggling activity.
She deplored that though the state has been turned into a ganja hub during the last five five years, neither Chief Minister, nor Home Minister felt the need to conduct a review of the issue even once. This itself reflects that influential people were behind this menace.
Anita Vangalapudi said that 1230 people are in jail in Visakhapatnam in ganja cases. 385 people are in jail in other parts of the state. The Home Minister lamented that during the YCP regime, ganja was sold on Amazon and the police also acted negligently.