AMN / WEB DESK
Union Home Minister Amit Shah today called upon all concerned agencies and States to come together to end the menace of drug trafficking and drug addiction. Stressing on coordination between various enforcement agencies and states, the Minister said, the Home Ministry is working in coordination with other ministries and all other concerned to help society get rid of drug addiction.
He was addressing the National Conference on ‘Drug Trafficking and National Security’ in Chandigarh after launching dog squads to control the drug trafficking, NCORD and NIDAAN portals.
NCORD portal will help not only in coordination but in knowledge management also. The NIDAAN portal contains information about NARCO prisoners.
The Union Home Minister also witnessed the disposal of drugs at four places in the country. NCB teams in Delhi, Chennai, Guwahati and Kolkata disposed off more than 30,000 kg of drugs in front of the Home Minister via video conferencing during this programme.
Talking about the achievements of the Modi Government in controlling drug trafficking, the Union Minister said that the Home Ministry has taken multidimensional initiatives in the last seven years and the results are overwhelming. He said that there is an increase of 200 per cent in cases registered and a 260 per cent increase in arrests to control drug trafficking. He said, from 2006 to 2013 a total of 1.52 lakh kilograms of drugs were recovered while from 2014 to 2021 a total of 3.3 lakh kilograms of drugs were seized. Mr Shah said that during the tenure of the Modi government drugs worth Rs 20,000 crore were seized.
The Union Minister said, the NCB is working to launch a helpline soon. He also said, for speedy trial of drug cases the constitution of fast track courts and exclusive courts is being discussed with the Supreme Court.
Mr Shah also stressed upon coordination between agencies and administration at the district level to check the drug menace. Appreciating the states which have constituted anti-narcotics cells, he appealed to the rest of the states to do so. Assuring help and support from the Central Government, he appealed to the states to hand over difficult drug cases to NCB. However if the case involves other countries it is better to hand it over to NIA, Mr. Shah said.
The Chief Ministers of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, Administrator of Union Territory of Chandigarh, Officers from the Border Security Force, National Investigation Agency and Narcotics Control Bureau as well as Anti Naxal Task Force chiefs of the States and Narco Coordination Centre (NCORD) members attended the conference.
In the evening Union Home Minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for various development projects at Maulijagran in Chandigarh.