Collector orders opium survey in district

Shocked by the discovery of opium poppy cultivation in Shirur taluka of Pune, district collector, Vikas Deshmukh, has ordered the revenue officials to undertake a survey of the district to check for more such cases.

On Wednesday, the rural police had discovered opium poppy being cultivated in two fields of Nhavre and Vadgaon Rasi villages of Shirur taluka. The police had destroyed 75 kg of the opium crops, which was grown as an intercrop between onion along the fringes of sugarcane crops.

“This is a serious issue and the revenue department would be doing utmost to control it. I would be ordering the talathis to conduct combing operations across the district to look for such cultivations. In case they come across opium poppy cultivations, they would be informing the local police, who would be conducting further action. In this regard, I have already talked to the local superintendent of police,” Deshmukh said.

The discovery of cultivation of the opium seems to have taken viral proportions. In the last 15 days, fields of opium poppy were discovered in Satara, Beed and Sangli. Farmers who were arrested for the alleged cultivation had claimed that they were unaware about the legal ramifications, and had cultivated poppy for extracting the seeds in form of Khas Khas.

Also, none of the 7/12 land extracts had the mention of opium poppy being cultivated in description of crops being planted there. When questioned about this, Deshmukh said that only major crops cultivated are entered in the description of crops by the talathis in the land records.

“In all the cases, poppy was being cultivated as an intercrop, and so did not reflect in  7/12 land records,” he said.