The state government on Tuesday ordered the establishment of 10 Anti-Human Trafficking Units (AHTU) in addition to the existing three units in the country. The government also declared all AHTUs to be police stations and will be housed in the Disha police stations in their respective districts.
According to the Government Ordinance of the Chief Secretary of the Government. (Ministry of the Interior) Kumar Vishwajeet, the decision to establish the AHTUs was made taking into account the proposal of the Director General of Police D. Gautam Sawang, who followed the instructions of the central government to strengthen law enforcement with committed AHTUs in coordination with the Department of Women and Children Welfare of the Labor Department followed and other stakeholders.
The new AHTUs will be set up in all 10 districts except West Godavari, Guntur and Anantapur, which already have AHTUs. The chiefs of the local police units will be node officers from the AHTUs, and an additional DG rank officer from the CID has been appointed node officer at the state level to combat trafficking in human beings.
An AHTU is responsible for registering FIRs and investigating all trafficking-related cases across the district.
Each AHTU consists of an inspector, two sub-inspectors, two chief policemen and two policemen.