Drug-sniffer dogs to be deployed at transport hubs

Despite having 200 dogs as part of Telangana’s police force, including 35 Narcotics Detection Dogs, their utilisation remains a question. In a recent meeting with the State police officials, where the growing drug menace across the State was the key concern, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy stressed on the need for utilising the dogs better for better surveillance. “Of the various categories of dogs that the State police have, tracker dogs, often used for manhunt for suspects in critical cases like murder, sexual assault among others, can double up as NDDs,” explained Director of Telangana Anti-Narcotics Bureau Sandeep Shandilya. Following this, in a circular memorandum issued by senior official from the State police, as many 29 key ‘vulnerable drug transportation’ spots across 12 districts or commissionerates of the State along with eight train routes have been identified for deployment of these dogs. In addition, forces have been asked to utilise dogs for sniffing drugs in the pan shops, kirana stores and roadside eateries in the 200-metre radius of schools and institutions, bus stands, landing and godown centers of parcel services including DHL, Fedex, DTDC and Blue Dart which form a significant part of cross-border supply chain, restaurants, bars and pubs and foreign national localities for targeted seizures.