Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai
BENGALURU: Union Home Minister Amit Shah said there is a need to increase vigil along the southern sea route to tackle drug trafficking, besides giving thrust for a thorough investigation in drug cases.
Chairing the Regional Conference on Drug Trafficking and National Security for Southern States/UTs organised by the Narcotics Control Bureau here on Friday, Shah said the southern sea route from Makran Coast to the Indian Ocean is one of the prominent routes, and vigilance must be improved specifically in this region.
“Ships from the Pakistan and Iran route load drugs and traffick them to Sri Lanka till Africa, via the Indian Ocean. It has to be ensured that drug trafficking on this route is stopped completely, as until then drugs will continue to enter India via this route,” he said.
Noting that the fight against drugs was not just the fight of the Centre or state governments but every individual household, he said detection of drugs, destruction of the network, detention of culprits and rehabilitation of drug addicts were four pillars to eradicate the drug menace.
“The PM’s vision is to achieve complete literacy and make India a $5 trillion economy, and it is possible to achieve it only by winning the fight against drugs,” he said.
Expressing displeasure over the investigation of NDPS cases, Shah called upon agencies to make use of stringent laws while probing narcotics cases.
“We need to change our approach in dealing with narcotics cases and adopt top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top investigation to destroy drug networks. No drug case should be investigated in isolation and there must be cooperation, coordination and collaboration between all agencies to tackle the social evil effectively,” Shah said.
The conference saw 9,298kg of seized narcotics worth Rs 1,235 crore being destroyed.
