Hyderabad: After initially planning to issue a government order (GO) to make educational institutions accountable for drug abuse on their campuses, chief minister A Revanth Reddy has now decided to introduce a new law prescribing punitive action against educational institutions, repeat drug abusers and drug peddlers.Following preliminary discussions with senior officials from the police and education dept, the govt is considering making students who repeatedly abuse drugs or are involved in drug peddling on campus ineligible for fee reimbursement and other welfare benefits, including Rythu Bharosa.“If a student is not reforming despite being given multiple opportunities, including being sent for de-addiction, discussions are being held to make them ineligible for social welfare benefits,” an officer privy to the development told TOI.Similarly, the proposed law will fix accountability on educational institutions. If the management of an educational institution is found to have wilfully neglected drug abuse or peddling on its campus and failed to alert the police or other agencies, its recognition could be cancelled.The series of high-level meetings that Revanth Reddy held with senior officials last month was aimed at making every educational institute accountable for keeping its campus drug-free. Officials had initially proposed issuing a GO making it mandatory for institutions to constitute anti-drug committees to flag when any information related to drug abuse or peddling on or around the campus. The committees, they suggested, would also maintain liaison with the police through the management and share relevant information with enforcement agencies.Security agencies felt that the absence of a mandatory requirement to constitute such committees had contributed to a lack of seriousness among some educational institutions in tackling drug abuse.“Managements should take responsibility. Their actions should assure parents that their children are in a safe place,” said a police official.In the past two years, about 820 students have been caught by Telangana police, including the EAGLE task force, for allegedly being involved in drug peddling or drug abuse. Of them, around 600 were drug consumers, while the remaining were allegedly involved in peddling. Telangana has nearly 35,000 educational institutions.Apart from proposing the new law to tackle drug abuse, the CM has also directed the education dept and police to work towards reducing the dropout rate in schools and colleges.
