Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Thursday said that increasing awareness and vigilance are essential ways to keep the youths away from drugs and emphasized the role of teachers and parents in this regard.

The Chief Minister earlier on Thursday inaugurated an awareness program on HIV/AIDS organized by the Tripura AIDS Control Society at Rabindra Satabarshiki Bhavan in Agartala.

 Speaking on occasion, CM Saha said, “Children of the present generation are the wealth of our society, state, and country. It should be ensured that they do not get addicted to drugs and do not contract diseases like HIV/AIDS. Therefore, teachers as well as parents should be more aware and careful.”

“The number of HIV/AIDS patients is also increasing at an alarming rate in the state. On average, 150 to 200 people are infected with HIV every month. In most cases, it is caused by injecting drugs into the veins. Therefore, it is not possible to stop this trend only by the efforts of doctors, police, AIDS control society, or teachers. To address this issue, people from all sections of society should come forward,” he said.

CM Saha, who also holds the Health portfolio, mentioned that at one time in the 70s, Manipur had the highest number of AIDS patients.

 “Primarily, the increase in the number of drug addicts is due to injecting drugs. And now this trend has spread in Tripura as well, which is very worrying. Injecting drugs is one of the main causes of HIV/AIDS infection. In this case, we should sympathize with the victims instead of condemning them,” he said.

 “Increasing awareness and vigilance are crucial in keeping the youth away from drugs. The role of teachers, along with parents, is very important in preventing children from falling into drug addiction. Therefore, teachers must conduct awareness activities with students on these issues at least once a week,” CM Saha added.

He questioned why, if Prime Minister Narendra Modi has successfully managed to control the COVID-19 epidemic in around 150 countries, including India, the state cannot effectively tackle AIDS.

The Chief Minister also emphasized that to eliminate the horrors of AIDS, monitoring children in schools should be increased. “This social evil cannot be tackled by the police, education department, doctors, AIDS control society or parents alone. Therefore, every citizen of society should come forward with the message of awareness,” he said.

 Additional Secretary of the Health Department, Brahmit Kaur; Director of the Health Department, Sanjib Debbarma; Director of the Higher Education Department, NC Sharma; Officer of the State NSS Cell, Prabal Kanti Deb; and Project Director of the Tripura AIDS Control Society, Samarpita Datta, were present as distinguished guests on the occasion.