Once struggling with low groundwater levels, woes of Melawas village in Rajasthan’s Pali district are now over. Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Ghanshyam Soni, an IRS officer (custom and central excise), this village can give many towns competition when it comes to development and growth. With proper roads, solar lights, CCTV cameras, and rainwater harvesting, Melawas is a model village and has won many awards for Mr. Soni.
After fast-tracking his village development, he is on war-footing against drugs. Mr. Soni has now been posted as Zonal Director Head, NCB, Jodhpur-Jaipur on central deputation. He might have took charge on August 15 this year but in just two months, his team has been able to damage the economy of drugs syndicate in Rajasthan.
In conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Soni shared his gratitude to be able to serve on this position. He said, ‘The responsibility is huge. I am grateful to UPSC who selected me for this position. My team is prepared to make drugs free Rajasthan.” Till now, his team has been able to do multiple seizures of drugs like heroine, Marijuana (ganja). In a combine raid by NCB and police were able to seize a truck full of more than 111 kg in opium poppy seeds near Jahajpur (Pali, Rajasthan).
SEIZING OVER Rs 200 Cr PROPERTY
In a move to economically damage the syndicate, Mr. Soni has started a combined training program. Along with NCB, several other police department are being trained under Section 68F of the Indian Penal Code NDPS act to seize the property of the criminals caught in commercial frauds including drugs.
“The first session was held on Jodhpur police academy in which 260 RPS officer took part. Now, several departments who work under NDPS have been given training online & offline too”, Mr. Soni.
This step has helped to fight the drugs syndicate. The bank account, house, house, shop, shares, agricultural land, own property and property of relatives and associates of more than 35 people have been seized worth more than 200 crores rupees.
FROM ACROSS THE BORDER
A racket has been busted which used to order Marijuana from Amazon. The main accused was from Surat and was using ID and address of others to get the delivery. “Only control delivery of such items are permissible and in monitoring of custom & NCB. This racket was fooling innocent people and using their id & address to place the order”, said the officer.
Besides this, the monitoring of drugs coming from across the border has also increased. In Ganganagar, several case were detected where drugs were sent here through drone. The NCB team under Mr. Soni’s leadership has now been able to control that too. In one raid, heroine worth of more than 4.5 crore were seized.
