Nearly one lakh people stay at the largest slum, Salia Sahi. Narrow roads and shanty houses have emerged as a major constraint for the police to nab drug peddlers in the crowded slum. Police have also found several drug peddlers supplying the contraband to women and girls in the slum to sell to customers.
salia Sahi, one of the largest slums in the city, has emerged as safe haven for drug peddlers after the police cracked its whip on drug dealers in the Haladi Padia slum under Laxmisagar police limits. Recently the police arrested 32-year-old Chiku Swain a resident of Salia Sahi for possessing 15 grams of brown sugar.
Police said that the arrest of Swain was the tip of iceberg as a number of slum dwellers are engaged in illegal trading of brown sugar. “In the past we have raided the slum several times but failed to find the contraband from their possession. So we have decided to engage our men to keep a track on the peddlers to nab them red handed,” said a police official.
Nearly one lakh people stay at the slum, which comprises of 36 slum clusters and is spread over an area of 52 acres. Narrow roads and shanty houses have emerged as a major constraint for the police to nab drug peddlers in the crowded slum. Police have also found several drug peddlers supplying the contraband to women and girls in the slum to sell to customers. “The peddlers offer Rs 20 to Rs 30 per sachet of contraband which is sold at a price between Rs 200 and Rs 300. The peddlers in the slum effectively use woman and girls to avoid police attention,” said a police official.
In March last year the slum dwellers during an interaction with the commissionerate police had demanded the police to take stringent action against the peddlers alleging drug peddling rampant in the slum. As per the official statistics, police have managed to seize only 8.7 grams of brown sugar in Bhubnaeswar between 2011 and 2015. While there was no seizure of the contraband in the time period between 2011 and 2014, the police seized 8.7 grams of brown sugar in 2015. However the police in 2016 have seized a staggering 634 grams of brown sugar in Bhubaneswar. Police in February have seized around 65 grams of brown sugar in three different cases including the Salia Sahi incident. On February 16, the Laxmisagar police had arrested four drug peddlers from Haladi Padia slum and had seized 40grams of brown sugar from them. Similarly on February 4, Nandankanan police had arrested one Bidhan Jayadhar (45) from Raghunathpur area and had seized 10 grams of the contraband. The police are keen to ensure that the drug menace is stamped out of the slum as fast as possible. March 1-15, 2017
