The anti-terror National Security guard regional hub was inaugurated in 22 acres of land in Tirumulgherry in Secunderabad at a cost of Rs.37.96 crore. Though there are three functional NSG’s in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, this hub is the first one to have permanent infrastructure.

The regional hub here will have 241 commandos, ready for deployment round the clock as fast as possible. The decision to set up this hub was taken after the Mumbai, 26/11 attacks in 2008 to reduce the response time and reach the area of action as quickly as possible. During the Mumbai terrorist attacks, it took several hours to deploy NSG commandos to assemble from Manesar, near Gurgaon in Haryana which was home to the NSG. The response time for the NSG unit in Hyderabad to assemble and airborne is 60 minutes.

The NSGs here will be provided with modern weapons and world class training to handle terrorist attacks and hijacking in planes. These NSG commandos will also be sent to Russia and France to update themselves with modern training methods and equipment.

In order to curb terrorism, the government is taking several measures such as increasing the capacity in NSG, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). Apart from that government and security agencies are also introducing new course, new training modules and new equipment at the NSG hubs to bring down the number in terrorist attacks.

A state-of-the art facility for training NSG in Southern states is also coming up at the Ibrahimpatnam in Hyderabad.

Transparency International, a Berlin based anti-corruption agency, has conducted a study called ‘Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index’ trends on corruption across the world. The study was conducted in 2011 and has ranked 183 countries based on the perceived levels of corruption in public sector. The ranks of various countries are based on the scores which are given on a scale of 0 to 10. The higher the score the lesser is the corruption and vice versa. The score of 10 suggests that the country is incorrupt and the score of 1 suggests that the country is highly corrupt. Any score less than 5 is considered to be bad.

As per this survey, Indian has scored 3.1 (3.3 in 2010 survey), ranking 95, indicating the increase in corruption levels in the country. This low score is mainly attributed to the big corruption scandals such as Commonwealth games and 2G spectrum scam that took place in 2011.

The country’s rank is lower than China (scored 3.6 points and ranked 75th). But our country’s rank is much better than Pakistan (134) and Nepal (154), considered as the most corrupt country in South Asia.

As per the corruptions Index, the top 5 countries which scored above 9 (least corruption) are – New Zealand (9.5), Denmark (9.4), Finland (9.4), Sweden (9.3) and Singapore (9.2).

The countries which scored around 1 (highly corrupted) are – North Korea (1.0), Somalia (1.0), Afghanistan (1.5), Myanmar (1.5) and Uzbekistan (1.6).

The study is based on the data collected from various sources, including business and country experts to assess the overall extent of graft.

During the second foundation lecture of Cancer Foundation of India, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Amartya Sen said that the government should forcibly discourage smoking in India. He also said that though the smokers have a personal liberty for deciding on their habit, the habit causes harm to others and hence, it should be discouraged.

By saying harm to others, he not only intended passive smoking effects, but also the medical treatment costs (such as treatment for cancer) of the people, for whom government will bear the costs. He also said that, since the medical resources are limited in our country, they should be otherwise used for treating other natural ailments, rather than acquired diseases.

Further, he opined that cancer is a disease that receives less attention in India. It is given higher importance, particularly in rich countries. And in the country like ours, the focus is mainly on the disease like cardiovascular and diarrhoeal diseases which occur on a regular basis and kill a large group of people.

He said that the health policy makers have a wrong perception that people in poor countries have less life expectancy and for them cancer is a relatively small threat, but diseases such as communicable diseases are highly dangerous since they cause high number of mortalities. But, in the present conditions as the life expectancy of people in India too is increasing, the effects of cancer too are likely to rise.

He also mentioned that while the bad habits such as smoking are declining in rich countries like USA, it is rising in the countries such as China and India.

According to the findings by Canadian researchers, which was also published in the journal Addiction, it was found that for every 10 percent increase in the price of beer, liquor and alcohol, 3.4% of decrease in overall alcohol consumption was seen, even after considering all the general economic indicators. These findings were based on the data collected in between 1989 and 2010 from the Canadian province in British Columbia, where the minimum alcohol prices are set and the information on its sales are provided by the government.

As per this data, every 10% hike in the minimum alcohol prices led to 6.8% decrease in the consumption of spirits and liquor, 8.9% decrease in the consumption of wine, 13.9% decrease in the consumption of alcoholic sodas and cider and 1.5 percent decrease in the consumption of beer.

Head for Center for Addictions Research of BC in Victoria has also accepted the above findings and said that this measure of increasing the minimum prices can help in reducing public health implications such as car accidents and fatty liver diseases.

Health policy experts too opined that the above finding suggests that implementing an alcohol tax policy and setting minimum alcohol prices (a part of alcohol tax policy) is an effective step in designing health policies for a country.

The breathalyzers used by the traffic police to curb the road accidents due to drunken driving is of least help. The city’s alcohol abusing youth due to the fear of getting caught by the traffic police are now found turning towards the drugs, whose abuse is not detected by the breathalyzers. This highlights the loopholes in the measures taken by the government to control the road accidents as well as to restrict the addiction of illegal substance among the youth.

The city traffic police said that most of the youth riding in the city, though found on high, suspicious and intoxicated are passing the alcohol test and are successfully evading the concerned punishments. The reason for this high among the youth is found to be the abuse of ganja, which is easily available in the city.

Very recently 180 kg of ganja was seized by excise officials. Even though the police are making severe efforts to trace the movements of ganja, ganja is widely available in many pockets of the city. And as the city’s traffic police do not have any spot drug testing kits, youth are finding it easy to escape the police trap.

A recent investigation conducted by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials has revealed that a banned narcotic substance called ephedrine is being manufactured and transported by a city based pharmaceutical company, Kopplem Pharma Chemicals Ltd., situated in Jeedimetla. The DRI officials have seized 10 tins of ephedrine, worth Rs.33 crore in the company. The company is found to have manufactured the drug and transport it to various countries via Chennai for the New Year bash. The company is also found to have supplied the drug to the local areas and other business establishments in the city.

Apart from the above company, it is reported that there are many other companies in the Jeedimetla industrial area which are involved in this kind of practices.

In view of illegal drug trafficking being rapid in the city, another illegal drug peddling case came in to the light. The city police caught a Yemeni national at Puranapul, possessing 20kg of Kath leaves (banned narcotic substance), brought from Ethiopia from air. This incident took place on the eve of New Year. The carton had 60 bunches of Kath leaves, which are worth Rs.25 lakh in the international market. These Kath leaves are recognized as substances of illegal abuse by World Health Organization (WHO) and hence are banned by many countries including India.

As per the investigation, the victim traded these Kath leaves between Ethiopia and India, so as to make his living. As these leaves are legal in Ethiopia, Yemen and Somalia, they are easily available in those countries and are brought to the India. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has identified the cartons to be containing drugs and has booked a case against the victim under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act).

Another incident, in which 3 marijuana drug peddlers got arrested, reinforces the fact that the city is becoming the obvious destination for peddling of contrabands. These three marijuana peddlers were recently booked under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by the city police.

One of the victims was caught at his residence in Madhapur and the police seized packets of ganja. While interrogating him, the victim has revealed the names of other two drug peddlers located in Dhoolpet. After arresting the other two suspects, police seized 900 grams of ganja packed in 110 satchets. They told the police that they acquired ganja from farmers and agents in warangal.

The Hyderabad task force police arrested Jaweed, a Mumbai based boutique owner (Emperor boutiques) while he was waiting for his clients at City Center Mall in Banjara Hills, Road No.1. Police seized 40gms of cocaine packed in an empty fruit packet.

Jaweed came to city to sell cocaine for the New Year. He resided at a hotel in Punjagutta. Jaweed used to purchase cocaine from a Nigerian staying in his neighborhood in Mumbai. The victim was involved in cocaine peddling since 2007 (when he came back from Kuwait and started his boutique in Bandra), and used to sell the contraband drug to his high profile friends and customers at higher price. After realizing the heavy demand for cocaine in Hyderabad during New Year season, he came this year to the city to sell the drugs.