New Delhi, Dec 27: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired a high-level national meeting on narcotics coordination and directed the creation of a pan-India portal, a canine unit, free call centre and specialised task forces in states to curb the menace of drugs, an official statement said.
The minister reviewed the drugs abuse scenario and the mechanism to counter it in the country during the third apex-level meeting of the narcotics coordination mechanism NCORD, which has a theme of eradicating drugs from the country with the objective of ‘nasha-mukt Bharat abhiyan’ or drugs-free India movement.
The meeting was organised by the federal anti-narcotics agency, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), and it was attended by the secretaries and police chiefs of various states and the Centre.
Shah underlined during the meeting that the Narendra Modi government has adopted a zero tolerance policy against narcotics and it considers drug abuse as a major threat to the national security which can only be dealt with overall coordination.
“He stressed upon the need for close coordination between the states and central government agencies to tackle this problem that transcends boundaries. The minister underscored the importance of organising NCORD meetings regularly at all the levels with participation of senior officers,” the statement said.
For strengthening the coordination mechanism, the minister asked all states to create dedicated anti-narcotics task force (ANTF) which can also function as the NCORD secretariat at the state level, the statement said.
The minister said the Union government will also create a 24×7 toll free national narcotics call centre where the public can share inputs and information on drug matters.
Shah directed the NCB to build capacity of various drug law enforcement agencies like the police, paramilitary forces, public prosecutors and employees of civil departments “at national level on various areas of narcotics control.”
According to official data shared during the meeting, drugs worth Rs 1,881 crore were seized between 2018-2021, which is “three times” the value of drugs seized between 2011-2014 at Rs 604 crore. (PTI)
