KOCHI: The anti-narcotic drive in the state will get a shot in the arm soon as the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has decided to augment its operations in the state by appointing trained officials armed with sophisticated weapons.
The functioning of the lone NCB unit in Thiruvananthapuram has been badly hit for the last several months owing to acute shortage of staff, even though there had been reports of rise in drug trafficking incidents in the state.
"We have been monitoring the development in Kerala and have decided to strengthen our force by making more appointments of intelligence officials," NCB zonal director Davidson Dev Ashirwadam said.
The official said that a new batch of officers had been selected and they were being given training at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Academy at Ghaziabad.
"The trained officials will be deployed in all NCB regional offices in South India, including Thiruvananthapuram, after considering the requirement of staff at each office," he said.
Ashirwadam said that considering the changing threat perception, the NCB had decided to arm their officials with the latest weapons for self protection during operations against armed drug trafficking rackets in the state.
"Once the operation of the NCB unit in Kerala is fully streamlined with the induction of new officials, we will launch regular coordination programmes with the state police and other related enforcement agencies," he said and added that there would be intelligence coordination with the state police and the NCB would seek the support of the state police for carrying out various operations in the state.
"Our main operation will concentrate on collecting and analysing data related to seizures of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, study trends and the modus operandi of drug trafficking rackets for dissemination of intelligence inputs to Customs, state police and other law enforcement agencies," he said.
The Centre constituted the NCB on March 17, 1986, as an apex coordinating agency for antinarcotic operations in the country. The agency has field units located at Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Delhi, Imphal, Jammu, Jodhpur, Lucknow, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.