The second phase of the State government’s wide-ranging ‘No to drugs’ campaign against drug menace and substance abuse will begin on Monday with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s children’s day message at 11 a.m.
The address will be telecast through the Kite Victers educational channel and will be screened at all schools and colleges. The second phase of the campaign will extend till January 26.
The CM will also release ‘Thelivanam Varakkunnavar, an awareness booklet prepared by the Excise department, Vimukthi Mission and the General Education department. The booklet will be made available in Malayalam, English, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and in various adivasi dialects. The government aims to take the anti-drug message to 65 lakh households through the booklet.
On Monday, one hour in every classroom across the State will be set aside for convening anti-drug sabhas. The school parliaments and college unions will lead the activity, in which the programmes taken up in the first phase will be assessed and more campaign plans for the second phase will be chalked out.
Excise Minister M.B. Rajesh said that the excise as well as the police departments will step up enforcement activities along with the awareness campaign. A total of 3,071 people were arrested in 2,823 cases during the first phase of the campaign from October 6 to November 1. He said that the first phase of the campaign was successful in kicking off discussions regarding drugs in society.
The government will also launch a ‘goal challenge’ to make use of the spirit behind the upcoming Football World Cup for the anti-drug campaign. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the campaign, which aims to reach a target of two crore goals through goal challenge events organised at schools, colleges, wards, kudumbashree units and government as well as private institutions.
