Opium And Alkaloid Works
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The Government Opium and Alkaloid Factories (GOAF) is an
Indian government The Government of India (ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of 36 states and union territor ...
-owned organisation. Its headquarter is located in New Delhi. The overall supervision of the organisation comes under the purview of Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. There are two factories under the GOAF - Government Opium and Alkaloid Works,
Ghazipur Ghazipur, is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. It is located on the Ganges (Ganga) ...
( U.P.) and Government Opium and Alkaloid Works,
Neemuch Neemuch or Nimach is a city in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh. The town shares its northwestern border with the state of Rajasthan and is the administrative headquarters of Neemuch District. Formerly a large British people, British cantonm ...
( M.P.).


Products

The enterprise's two factories specialize in the production of
opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...
and the extraction of related alkaloids (such as
Codeine Codeine is an opiate and prodrug of morphine mainly used to treat pain, coughing, and diarrhea. It is also commonly used as a recreational drug. It is found naturally in the sap of the opium poppy, ''Papaver somniferum''. It is typically use ...
phosphates,
Morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
salts, Dionine, Morphine Hydrochloride,
Thebaine Thebaine (paramorphine), also known as codeine methyl enol ether, is an opiate alkaloid, its name coming from the Greek Θῆβαι, '' Thēbai'' (Thebes), an ancient city in Upper Egypt. A minor constituent of opium, thebaine is chemically simi ...
, and more). It is the country's largest producer of opium-related products.  (
Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
)


Cultivation of poppy for factory

The input for factory is derived from licensed poppy cultivators in India from the states of
Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...
,
Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...
and
Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...
. The entire produce is brought by government and supplied to GOAF. GOAF delivers the finished products such as alkaloids to the
pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry is a medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or self-administered by) patients for curing ...
. In 2017, the
Central Government of India The Government of India (ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of 36 states and union territor ...
started steps to privatize cultivation and processing of poppy in the country. A trial contract was awarded to a pharma company, ''Rusan Pharma Ltd and Embio limited'' to cultivate poppy over 2 hectares of land and extract the essence using a technology called ''concentrated poppy straw'' (CPS).


Factories


Government Opium and Alkaloid Works, Ghazipur (U.P.)

The
Ghazipur Ghazipur, is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. It is located on the Ganges (Ganga) ...
factory began life as the Benaras Opium Agency,''Government Opium and alkaloid factories at a glance''
( Central Bureau of Narcotics)
an entity of the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
, in 1820. The opium processed at Ghazipur was sent to Calcutta (now known as
Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
) for auction, then shipped to the south China coast and smuggled into the country via the port of Canton (now known as
Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
). In 1945, the factory began extracting
alkaloid Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large varie ...
s in addition to processing opium. Currently, Sh. Rajendra Kumar, I.R.S. Additional GST Commissioner hold the additional charge of General Manager of this factory and Mr. O.P. Rai, I.R.S. is the Manager/ Asstt. Commissioner of factory along with the other official is currently posted in factory i.e Mr. Ajeet Kumar, C.L.S., Asst.Commissioner(central-Labour Welfare).The Ghazipur opium factory is mentioned in the novel "Sea of Poppies" by Amitav Ghosh. More recently both the
Ghazipur Ghazipur, is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ghazipur city is the administrative headquarters of the Ghazipur district, one of the four districts that form the Varanasi division of Uttar Pradesh. It is located on the Ganges (Ganga) ...
and Nimach factories are referred to as sources of illegal smuggling for opium manufacture in the movie " Udta Punjab" (2016). This factory has connectivity with National Waterway 1. The factory was shut by UP Pollution Control Board in 2017 due to pollution issues and inferior affluent management practices.


Government Opium and Alkaloid Works, Neemuch (M.P.)

The Neemuch factory was founded in 1933. In 1976, it began extracting alkaloids in addition to processing opium. The Nimach factory, also known as Neemuch factory, is an acronym for Northern India Mounted Artillery and Cavalry Headquarters. The opium factory is known to have the largest opium receptacle in the world, resembling a large backyard swimming pool. It holds 450 tons of opium. The contents of the vat are stolen in the anti-heroin novel "White Monsoon" by Scott Nelson. In the novel, White Monsoon was a codename for a 1992 Libyan plot to pose as members of the International Red Cross and travel from Libya to India’s Opium and Alkaloid Works in Neemuch to steal the contents of a backyard swimming pool sized vat containing 450 tons of opium worth 36US billion in 1992. The opium would be converted to 40 tons of morphine base then smuggled into a remote location in Afghanistan to be converted to 40 tons of pure heroin to be sold for bargain-basement-prices on Main Street, America. Shri Naresh Bundel IRS is holding charge of General Manager of Government Opium & Alkaloid Works, Nimach. Shri Raising Rahul (IRS) is the Manager of the Factory.


Organization

After 1976, organisation is headed by the Chief Controller of Factories, currently Shri Anil Ramteke, IRS.


Workforce

The enterprise employs 1,432 people.


Security

Security is managed by members of the
Central Industrial Security Force The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) is a central armed police force in India under the Ministry of Home Affairs. CISF's primary mission is to provide security to large institutions, be it state or privately-owned. It was set up unde ...
, with 123 assigned to the Ghazipur factory and 104 to Neemuch.


See also

* Opium licensing *
Opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum'', commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae. It is the species of plant from which both opium and poppy seeds are derived and is also a valuable orname ...
*
First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...
and
Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War or ''Arrow'' War, was fought between the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States against the Qing dynasty of China between 1856 and 1860. It was the second major ...
s *
Company rule in India Company rule in India (also known as the Company Raj, from Hindi , ) refers to regions of the Indian subcontinent under the control of the British East India Company (EIC). The EIC, founded in 1600, established its first trading post in India ...
* Pharmaceuticals in India *
Opiate An opiate is an alkaloid substance derived from opium (or poppy straw). It differs from the similar term ''opioid'' in that the latter is used to designate all substances, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain ( ...
and
Opioid Opioids are a class of Drug, drugs that derive from, or mimic, natural substances found in the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy plant. Opioids work on opioid receptors in the brain and other organs to produce a variety of morphine-like effects, ...
* Indian Narcotic Substances Act *
Commission on Narcotic Drugs The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is one of the functional commissions of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and is the central drug policy-making body within the United Nations System. The CND also has important man ...
*
International Narcotics Control Board The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is an independent treaty body, one of the four treaty-mandated bodies under international drug control law (alongside the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, UNODC on behalf of the Secretary-General ...
*
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 (Single Convention, 1961 Convention, or C61) is an international treaty that controls activities (cultivation, production, supply, trade, transport) involving specific narcotic drugs and lays down a ...
and Protocol Amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (includes "Article 21" — ''Limitation of Production of Opium'') * Legal opium production in India


References

{{authority control Ghazipur Government-owned companies of India State agencies of Madhya Pradesh Pharmaceutical companies of India Opium in India Companies nationalised by the Government of India