AGARTALA, April 28 (TIWN): West police on Thursday along with the custom officials placed two accused before the court in allegation of smuggling 310 KG of cannabis, locally called as Ganja on Wednesday early morning.Even when the State is massively hit with the ganja plantation, the authority is reluctant to make any comment over the ganja drive with just one sentence that ‘the drives are going on in the areas’.Acting on a tip, custom official on Wednesday early morning arrested to people from kamthanaa area under Bhagalpur BOP area in Sipahijala district in allegation of smuggling 310 KG of Cannabis in a bolero car.However, the accused are identified as Mohim Uddin, resident of sonamura kamalnagar area and Ashok Kumar Debbarma resident of sonamura area. After arresting the accused were kept under the custody of west police station. The accused were produced before the court on Thursday.

The sources further said that along with the cannabis the custom has also seized a total of Rs 29,000 cash from the vehicle.

 However, custom official has seized the vehicle bearing number TR-01Y-1830 and the entire310 kg of Ganja. 

Reportedly, the incident took place when both the accused were moving towards Khowai from kamalanagar, the custom official nabbed them t morning 5.30.  However, after conducting investigation the Custom official seized the cannabis and arrested the accused from the spot.

Later the customs has sent the accused under the custody of west police and were further produced before the court on Thursday.

Despite regular raids conducted by the police, illegal cultivation of ganja (cannabis) has been on rise at Sonamura under Shipahijala district over past many years.

While the police destroyed cannabis plantation, it is found that locals taking up such illegal cultivation as there is much income from Ganja cultivation.

The police along with excise department officials keep on destroying such illegal cultivation in the district but the rise ganja cultivation is openly noticed at Sonamura and it seems like there is no initiative by the authority to curb the cultivation.

Cannabis is grown on a large scale in interior and inaccessible areas of the region, particularly in Sonamura and Boxanagar and also in many parts of the State. Since most of these plantations are tucked away in hills and forests, government agencies have a tough time destroying these.

When it comes to narcotics, no amount of laws seems to be enough to reign in the production and distribution of banned substances.  People cultivate the Ganja plants and do business for crores and also smuggle to Bangladesh to fetch hefty amount of money.

While hundreds of smugglers based in Tripura are sending spurious Phensedyl, a cough syrup, with an exceedingly high dose of codeine and other drugs to Bangladesh virtually by the truckload, hundreds of acres of remote land in West Tripura have become sprawling ganja plantations.

However, despite several government agencies are coordinating the drive and making people aware of the hazards of its cultivation but it remains a lucrative business smuggled mainly to Bangladesh.