by PRIYAN DE SILVA
Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security S. Hettiarachchi told journalists that more personnel from the Special Task Force (STF) would be deployed to curb the drug menace and underworld activities.
Hettiarachchi said that the drug menace was escalating and more and more schoolchildren were falling prey to unscrupulous drug dealers. He called upon teachers to be more vigilant about the behaviour of their charges and parents too to pay greater attention to their children and those they associate with.
Hettiarachchi said that school authorities should engage the services of prefects, cadets and scouts or girl guides to be more vigilant about their school mates and added that if the need arose the STF would be deployed to conduct spot checks as well.
He said that it was intended to recruit 600 more personnel to the STF and also reduce STF presence at prisons in Colombo, Angunukolapelessa and Boossa as well as the Southern Expressway and instead to deploy them to eradicate the drug menace and the underworld.