10 arrested including a school teacher for Ganja cultivation in Sambalpur

At least 10 people including a primary school teacher have been arrested on Thursday by the police in connection with the ganja cultivation in Naketideul area of Sambalpur district. Police arrested them after conducting joint raids with excise officials on various villages under Naktideul police station limits. Police and excise officials took such step after being pressurized with the news items published in the ‘Times of India’ where villagers of Jamjuri under the Naktideul police station had threatened to leave their native fearing a possible attack by of the ganja mafia as they are getting life threat from the mafia after they made complaint of rampant ganja cultivation in their surrounding village

The villagers were receiving life threat from the ganja mafias after they brought the matter into the notice of the district administration as they sustained heavy crop loss because of the rampant illegal ganja cultivation. When they brought the issue into the notice of district administration requesting to initiate action against ganja cultivation, they received threatening from the ganja mafia. Apprehending a noxious relation with the law abiding officials with the ganja mafia, they decided to leave the village on last week. According to them paddy crop was affected because of the scarcity of water and fertilizers as maximum water was pumped out by the mafia for ganja cultivation.

“Due to Ganja cultivation, we do not get sufficient water as Ganja Mafias pumped out water for their illegal cultivation. They also take the kerosene oil meant for us to run pump sets. As they take maximum pesticide in a higher price, we hardly get pesticides in our place.” Prahllad Pradhan, a villager of Jamjuri alleged

“When the situation becomes worst this year due to heavy crop loss we appealed the administration to take immediate action to stop Ganja cultivation. But surprisingly we get constant threat from ganja mafias for demanding action again them. We believe a strong racket is working behind the cultivation with the active help of local political leaders and administration”, he alleged. .

Sources said, Naktideul block area of the district has bestowed with green and natural forest and because of the inaccessible geographical condition initially it becomes the shelter place for the Maoist activists. But due to dispute among the top leaders in connection with money, police arrested most of them and the area become free from Maoist now. But taking the benefit of the situation, Ganja mafias are quite active in the area.

The excise and police officials have never arrested any one till now in connection with the ganja cultivation but on few occasions they conduct raids and destroy ganja cultivations to avoid public criticism.

“We arrested 10 people 3 from Jamjuri, 4 from Gadadharpur and 3 from Batgoan under NDPS act when we found their connection with alleged ganja cultivation. We also seized huge amount of ganja from their houses. Among them one Gurucharan Biswal of Batgoan is working as a teacher in Keloberna Primary School. We forwarded them to judicial custody on Friday”, the deputy superintendent of excide, Sambalpur Duryodhan Panigrahi told. According to him, the accused persons have cultivated ganja on their private land and on adjacent government plots “During raid we seized 37000 ganja plants and 10 kgs of ganja from the accused persons”, Panigrahi added