NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah on Monday said that it is the resolve of the Narendra Modi government to make India “drug-free” and not only will it check the narcotics trade in India, but it will also not allow drugs to be routed to the world through India.
Lauding the efforts of the Narcotics Control Bureau, India’s drug regulator, on the occasion of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Shah in a video message said that the government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs and narcotics and the agency has done a commendable job in the last nine years to curb the drug menace in India and the results of this approach have started coming in.
Shah said, “We have decided that we will not allow any kind of narcotics trade in India nor will we allow any drugs to be smuggled through India.” He further added, “I fully believe that with coordinated efforts, we will be successful in rooting out the menace of drugs and achieve our goal of a drugs-free India. We will not rest until this fight against drugs is won.”
Shah said that the war against drugs has been continuing and “is being carried out on a war footing” at the national level through appropriate forums. “The effect of our comprehensive and coordinated action is that where narcotics worth only Rs 768 crore were seized in 2006-13, it has now increased almost 30 times to Rs 22,000 crore from 2014-22,” he said. He said cases against drug peddlers have increased by 181 per cent -- from 1,257 cases between 2006 and 2013 to 3,544 between 2014 and 2022.
The minister also said that besides seizures, India has “also launched a destruction campaign to prevent re-use of seized drugs and six lakh kilogrammes of narcotics have been destroyed in the country since June 2022.
“This reflects the Modi government’s commitment for a drug-free India,” Shah said. The home minister said the success against the narcotics trade has been achieved primarily due to the Modi government’s “whole of government” approach under which policies are being framed with close coordination of different wings of the government.
While National Crime Bureau has been constantly keeping a strict vigil to bring down drug smuggling in the region, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) established NCORD in 2019 and Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) was formed in the police department of every state.