Drug menace: Locals worried

With no let up to the drug menace in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the Valley, the measures taken so far to curb it has failed to appease the local populace as according to them, the burglary incidents are the outcome of the menace. In a strange incident, the people living in one of the village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, have hit the streets to protest against the drug peddlers and the peddling, claiming that besides ruining the lives of youth involved in it. The womenfolk in the area are feeling insecure as several incidents of gold snatching have taken place in the locality. It is not for the first time that people have raised their voice against the drug menace, but in the past, the civil societies, local Mohalla Behbood committees and Islamic clerics started a campaign in this regard, but failed to yield any concrete results. Moreover, the Jammu and Kashmir police in order to curb the menace started a campaign and arrested a huge number of drug peddlers so far while many among them have been booked under Public Safety Act (PSA). There is a need to start a joint campaign against the drug menace to ensure a fruitful outcome on the ground. The government as well as the other civil societies, religious organizations, local Mohalla committees, should share a joint table in this regard and take a concrete step in this regard to ensure that the lives of youth are saved and also the crimes, taking place due to the drug menace is also curbed on the ground.