Two more village chiefs held for poppy cultivation in Manipur

Manipur police arrested two more persons, including a hill village chief, for allegedly being involved in illegal poppy cultivation even as poppy plant destruction drive under war on drug 2.0 is in full-swing.
The arrested village chief was identified as Paojahen Singson @ Hena (46) son of (late) Setkholien Singson. He is the chief of Nungthut village of Noney district.
His arrest came after a large poppy field was found in the hill range within his village jurisdiction and was destroyed on Saturday. He was arrested by a team of Nungba police of Noney district in a follow up action, the source said.
A combined team of troops of 39 Assam Rifles, personnel of Nungba police station and officials of forest department in Noney district on Saturday destroyed poppy plants on around 1.1 acres of forest area at the hill range of Nungthut village.
Members of Rongmei Riders, a CSO based in the district, also assisted the combined team in the destruction drive.
The destroyed poppy plants would be worth over Rs 10 lakhs, a release of the Inspector General of Assam Rifles (East) claimed on Saturday. After registering a case under the relevant sections of the ND&PS Act, a team of Nungba police station arrested the village chief, the source said.
The police in Kakching district also arrested another person suspected to be a caretaker of the poppy fields on Saturday, around 4.30 pm. A team of Sugnu police of Kakching district arrested the person identified as Ginkhanpau (60) from his house at Vaalveng village of Churachandpur district. A FIR has been lodged against him at the Sugnu police station under section 18(c) /25/27-4/29 ND & PS Act, the source said. On preliminary investigation, he revealed that he is the caretaker of the land where poppy was cultivated and admitted that he collected money from poppy cultivators.
The Manipur government has launched a massive drive against large-scale illegal poppy cultivation in hill districts of the state. In the ongoing drive, the police have arrested around seven chiefs of hill villages and some poppy cultivators in recent memory.
As per a government survey report, Ukhrul, Senapati, Kangpokpi, Kamjong, Churachandpur and Tengnoupal are major concerns of poppy cultivation.