Imphal: The Manipur government has been urged to take a rare opportunity by engaging the Indian Air Force to destroy poppy plantations in the hills at the earliest.
Maheshwar Thounaojam, the national general secretary of the Republican Party of India (Athawale) who arrived at Imphal airport on Saturday from the national capital said that he urged the Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh to translate the green signal given by the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh into actions at the earliest.
Notably during his meeting with the Union Defence Minister in New Delhi on October 2, the Defence Minister informed Thounaojam that IAF was instructed to destroy poppy plantations in the interior parts of Manipur before harvest during this season.
In reply to a question posed by a reporter at the airport, Maheshwar Thounaojam disclosed that he would meet the Manipur Chief Minister in a day or two to destroy the poppy plantation in order to break the backbone of the narco-terrorism occurring in this strife-torn state.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister in his efforts to renew the war against drugs has stated that the destruction of poppy plantations using IAF choppers would start after a survey of poppy plantation areas is completed.
The scale of poppy cultivation has spread across 15,400 acres of land in the hills between 2017 and 2023 in Manipur.