Excise guards hand over petition to HRC

by Kurulu Kariyakarawana

Representatives of the Excise Sergeants and Guards Union handed over a petition to the Human Rights Commission on Friday against the decision taken by the department hierarchy to cease all heroin and cannabis detections in Colombo without citing any valid reason.

President Excise Sergeants and Guards Union W L D Wijesekara told the *Sunday Observer *that the detection of heroin and cannabis by the Excise Colombo City Office has come to a halt since May 23, 2013 following a directive made by

a Deputy Excise Commissioner General and the operations of the Excise Narcotics Division has ceased since November 29.

Because of this situation, a number of drug- related offences are going undetected in the Colombo city for the last six months. At a time when the Government is doing its best to eradicate the narcotic menace under the "Mathata Thitha" program of the "Mahinda Chinthana" concept, ceasing detections is a stalemate to the program.

The Union has also complained that the promotions of guards and other minor rankers would be considered on a merit base depending on the number of detections they conduct. Since the department ordered to cease all drug -related detections it has become a problem for them to move up in the ladder and instead were stagnating in the positions they held.

Excise officers are presently given a target to cover when conducting raids and detections in drug- related offences.

The Union claims that this is not the way to address the narcotics problem as it will only record a mere set of figures. The need to set up a national policy to face the drug menace is vital at this juncture.

When contacted Excise spokesman Prabath Jayawickreme told the *Sunday Observer *that the decision to temporarily suspend all narcotics detections was taken by Deputy Excise Commissioner General, Wasantha Dissanayake due to certain complaints he received. However, discussions are now underway to reconsider giving permission to recommence detections and raids in the Colombo City Office and Narcotics Division.

It has been decided that officers eligible for promotion will be considered on merit they had gained prior to the order to cease detections made on May 23, Jayawickreme said.