NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate the third national conference of heads of Anti-Narcotics Task Forces (ANTFs) on Tuesday, with the two-day meeting set to review progress under the government’s Vision Document on Narcotics Control (2026-29) and discuss strategies to tackle drug trafficking and substance abuse across the country.
The conference will bring together heads of ANTFs from all 36 states and Union Territories, besides representatives of central government departments and other stakeholders. Deliberations will focus on strengthening the government’s supply, demand, and harm reduction measures, according to an official statement.
Held under the theme “United Resolve, Shared Responsibility”, the conference will assess the progress of targets assigned to state and UT ANTFs under the recently released vision document and examine initiatives to combat drug trafficking and substance abuse.
Shah will also release television commercials aimed at creating awareness about the dangers of drug abuse. He is set to lay the foundation stones for new Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Zone complexes in Lucknow and Dehradun.
Eight technical sessions have been planned during the conference, covering a range of issues including institutional mechanisms under the vision document, dismantling drug-trafficking networks and cartels, demand reduction and rehabilitation, enforcement effectiveness, precursor and synthetic drugs, illicit cultivation and alternative crops, and investigations involving the darknet and cryptocurrencies.
The discussions will be structured around four strategic pillars outlined in the Vision Document: enforcement, intelligence and operations; control of precursors and synthetic drugs; demand and harm reduction; and capacity building and coordination.
The government said the deliberations are expected to result in actionable strategies to strengthen drug-law enforcement and reinforce coordination among central and state agencies over the next three years. The best-performing ANTF among the states and Union Territories will be felicitated at the event. The conference will also see the launch of the revamped NCB website.
The government said the Centre is working in “mission mode” to protect the country’s youth from the adverse effects of drug abuse, linking the effort to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a “Viksit Bharat” by 2047.
Towards ‘Drug-Free India’
The conference will also deepen cooperation between the NCB and state and UT ANTFs, with a focus on developing a future-ready mechanism to combat drug abuse and advance government’s objective of a “Drug-Free India”