CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has sanctioned the establishment of 65 Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) police stations across the state, placing the units under the direct control of the CM to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking and abuse.
The network will comprise one ANTF station in each of the 37 districts and 28 units across nine city police commissionerates. Chennai will have 12 units, while Avadi, Tambaram, Salem, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Tiruchy, Madurai and Tirunelveli will have two each.
The units will function under a new ANTF headquarters with 10 specialised wings, including operations, cyber lab, crime records, field intelligence, special operations and investigation, control room, training, administration, IT support and legal units.
Each field station will have one inspector, four SIs and 20 police personnel, taking the total to 65 inspectors, 260 sub-inspectors and 1,300 personnel.
The headquarters will have 454 sanctioned posts and will be headed by a newly-created Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) post. The ADGP will be assisted by an IG and two SPs overseeing operations, intelligence and administration. Of the 454 posts, 392 are newly created, including the ADGP and one SP posts, while 62 have been redeployed from the existing Enforcement Bureau CID ANTF unit.
The ANTF will undertake intelligence gathering, cyber surveillance, case investigation, financial probes, asset seizures, prosecution support and preventive action, besides coordinating drug awareness and rehabilitation programmes.
The state has sanctioned `264.14 crore for the setup, including `245.99 crore recurring and `18.15 crore non-recurring expenditure. Meanwhile, 2,545 new posts have also been sanctioned for the Singappen Special Force.