Specific Information Service
KOCHI: The excise Crime Department is grappling with a extreme scarcity of manpower, which has significantly affected its functioning. This couldn’t have come at a extra inopportune time for the wing, since there was a large rise within the variety of drug-related instances within the state. The Crime Department wing was arrange in 2019 to research sensational instances.
The scarcity of arms means the officers are burdened with a heavy workload. Presently, the excise Crime Department is headed by a joint excise commissioner on the regional stage and the employees sample includes one assistant excise commissioner, two Circle Inspectors, three preventive officers, civil excise officers and drivers. It’s learnt that there are solely two officers every and drivers working with the three Crime Department workplaces in Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. The wing is at present investigating about 20 main instances.
In drug trafficking instances, the officers must exit of the state as a part of the investigation. However that is typically not attainable as a result of lack of employees. “There’s a spurt within the variety of narcotic instances within the state. Whereas a piece of the ganja is introduced in from Andra Pradesh, MDMA and different artificial medicine are sourced from Goa and Karnataka.
Therefore, the officers need to go there for investigation,” mentioned an official.Kerala Excise Employees Affiliation state president Ok Ramesh mentioned that the Crime Department wing must be expanded to all districts, as an alternative of functioning on the regional stage.”We now have already demanded that district items be arrange in order that the officers can act successfully throughout the present spike within the variety of narcotic instances,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, Excise Commissioner S Ananthakrishnan denied that the functioning of the Crime Department wing was affected in any approach. “Nonetheless, if the power is elevated, the wing can operate extra successfully. We now have already determined to increase the wing which probes main instances,” he added.
