Jharkhand police will roll out a special two-week drive against the sale of drugs and illegal liquor across the state from November 1, DGP M.V. Rao announced on Tuesday ahead of Diwali next month.

Addressing the media at police headquarters on Tuesday, Rao said, “Raids and crackdowns will be conducted thana-wise during the period of the drive and in case of any major hauls, the respective officer in-charge of police stations will be held accountable.”

The drive is also aimed at curbing illegal smuggling of liquor or other banned substances into neighbouring Bihar where Assembly polls will begin from Wednesday.

Rao said police, along with paramilitary forces, were conducting intensive operations along state borders for last few weeks, keeping in mind the elections in Bihar. “Fifty check-points have been set up along the borders to prevent inter-state movement illegal liquor, drugs, and movement of criminals or rebels during the polls,” he said.

Jharkhand, Rao added, would also hold byelections in Dumka and Bermo on November 3, for which respective districts had been alerted.

On recent achievements of police, Rao added that in the last one month as many as 13 people had been jailed for arms smuggling. “We have seized 200 pieces of gelatine sticks, over 100 detonators, several cache of arms and ammunition from districts and jailed 13 people. It’s a continuous exercise and teams are on vigil,” he said.

“As many as 4,642 litre country liquor and 1,495 litre foreign liquor was seized and over 80 people arrested in recent weeks. Similarly, 80kg ganja, 500kg dodda, 18kg opium, among others, were confiscated through special checks,” he said.

Crime against women and children had seen a spurt in the state in recent months which prompted police to roll out Whatsapp numbers in all districts for registering complaints. Rao said that in one week, police had received 108 complaints. Of these, 28 cases were reported from Ranchi, 18 from Giridih and 12 from East Singbhum (12).

“We are now mandating SPs to reach the spot and conduct preliminary investigations in case of any suspicious death of women and children to fix responsibility and prevent negligence at thana levels. Soon, we are going to issue standard operating procedures (SOPs) for handling sensitive cases in accordance with the law,” he said.