Drugs are enemy of national security, MHA committed to eliminating menace: Amit Shah

BENGALURU: Noting that drugs are an enemy of national security and the future of the country, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday asserted that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is fully committed to totally eliminating this menace under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Shah made his remarks while chairing the Regional Conference on ‘Drug Trafficking and National Security’ here. Pointing out that the Central government has adopted a policy of “zero tolerance against drugs to make a drug-free India”, Shah said the MHA has adopted a three-pronged approach to crack down on narcotics, which includes strengthening institutional structures, empowerment of all agencies related to the control of narcotics and strengthening the coordination among them and launching an awareness campaign.

He said the problem of drug trafficking is not related to a state or the Centre alone, but is a national problem and that efforts to deal with it should also be national and unified. Shah said that the fight against drugs is to be fought not only by the government, but also by the people. To deal with this issue, he also stressed on the need to organize District-level and State-level NCORD meetings regularly.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra also took part in the conference.

In order to crack down on the entire network, the Home Minister emphasized that narcotics cases should be thoroughly investigated with a bottom-to-top and top to bottom approach. He stressed that no case should be investigated in “isolation”.

Shah informed that a total of 1,257 cases were registered between 2006-2013, which increased by 152 per cent to 3,172 between 2014-2022, while, the total number of arrests during the same period increased by 260 per cent to 4,888 from 1362. Similarly, during 2006-2013, 1.52 lakh kg of drugs were seized which doubled to 3.30 lakh kg between 2014-2022, drugs worth Rs 768 crore were seized during 2006-2013, which increased by 25 times to Rs 20,000 crore between 2014-2022.

The minister said that there are four pillars of the Modi government’s campaign to eliminate the menace of drugs from the country — Detection of drugs, Destruction of network, Detention of culprits, and, Rehabilitation of drugs abusers. He also urged all the states to make proper use of the NCORD portal and NIDAAN platform for effective action against drug trafficking.

Shah said it was also the need of the hour to strengthen the Anti-Narcotics Task Force constituted in various states so that decisive action could be taken in the fight against narcotics. He also said that apart from this, various provisions of the NDPS Act should also strictly be implemented.

Officials from the southern states and Union Territories took part in the conference.

According to the minister, the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, has adopted a “whole of the government” approach against drugs and all departments and agencies should move forward to make a drug-free India by increasing cooperation, coordination and collaboration.

In the presence of the Home minister, 9,298 kgs of seized narcotics, worth Rs 1,235 crore, were destroyed. Apart from this, a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between the Rashtriya Raksha University and the Government of Karnataka to open a new campus of the University at Shivamogga.

Shah said under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, during the 75-day campaign starting from June 1, 2022, a target was set to destroy 75,000 kg of narcotics. “But, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a total of 5,94,620 kg of narcotics worth Rs 8,409 crore have been destroyed so far, overachieving the target manifold. Out of the total narcotics destroyed so far, 1,29,363 kg worth Rs 3,138 crore have been destroyed by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) alone”, the Home minister added.

Apart from this, Shah added that there is a need to increase the focus on coastal security and sea routes and tighter vigil should be maintained on the Southern Sea Route. The conference was attended by representatives from five southern states and three Union Territories (UTs). (ANI)