Riyaz Ahmed Lokmat News Network Nagpur) The police may have been making tall claims about cracking down on illegal businesses in the city but the ground reality appears to be very different. Data obtained by 'Lokmat Times' under Right to Information (RTI), shows Nagpur city in the grip of the 'blue' haze of MD drugs for the past five years! Interestingly, the MD seized in the seven months of 2023 is more than 50 percent of MD seized in the last four and a half years. According to the data received, a total of 125 cases of MD smuggling have been registered in Nagpur city from April 1, 2018 to July 2023. In these cases, MD worth `4.13 crore has been seized from smugglers. During the four and a half years from January 2018 to December 2022, MD worth `2.03 crore was seized, whereas in just seven months from January to July 2023, MD worth `2.10 crore was seized. These figures of the last seven months clearly show that Nagpur city is unable to get out of the grip of MD smugglers. The growing network of MD smuggling in the city can also be estimated from the fact that in just seven months this year, 30 cases were registered and MD worth `2.10 crore was seized. According to the data, in the last five years, a maximum number of 11 cases had been registered in the month of May this year. This is the first time in the last five years that more than ten cases have been registered in a month.
The network of MD smugglers is spread across the city. Students and youth are being made victims of this poisonous drug. According to sources, MD smuggling is flourishing in slums areas as well as high societies of the city. Smugglers have set up their hideouts in many settlements. Border areas have also become the choice of these smugglers. The lives of the youth are being ruined by getting dragged into this.