[4] In 2017, Central Government of India started steps to privatize cultivation and processing of poppy in the country.
[5] The Ghazipur factory began life as the Benaras Opium Agency,[6] an entity of the East India Company, in 1820.
The opium processed at Ghazipur was sent to Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) for auction, then shipped to the south China coast and smuggled into the country via the port of Canton (now known as Guangzhou).
More recently both the Ghazipur and Nimach factories are referred to as sources of illegal smuggling for opium manufacture in the movie "Udta Punjab" (2016).
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.
[3] Shri Naresh Bundel IRS is holding charge of General Manager of Government Opium & Alkaloid Works, Nimach.
After 1976, organisation is headed by the Chief Controller of Factories, currently Shri Anil Ramteke, IRS.