Shillong, July 4: The State Government has decided to implement the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988 in the state with the constitution of the three-member advisory board.
As per the notification issued on June 30, the three-member advisory comprises of Justice (retired) Shivaji Pandey and two senior advocates—ND Chullai and Tshering Yangi as members.
“We are now in a position to fully implement this Act with immediate effect. We are implementing this Act after 35 years since it came into force,” Social Welfare Minister, Paul Lyngdoh told reporters here on Tuesday.
He further stated that all along what was applicable here in the state of Meghalaya was an obsolete act (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985) since there are serious defects and loopholes in this legislation.
“Some of its major loopholes also felicitated violators to circumvent the Act. Therefore, render it ineffective. After two meetings with the Deputy CM in-charge Home (Police), Prestone Tynsong and other senior officials we have now been able to invoke a more severe Act,” Social Welfare Minister said.
Meanwhile, he said that the advisory board acts more like a court of appeal where anyone who feels he is subjected to wrong confinement can appeal or approach before the board.
According to him, this act of 1988 also takes care of repeat offenders who are getting in and out of either police stations or jails and keep going back to drug trafficking.
He further stated that this act takes care of such cases because it empowers the State to detain such a person for a period of not less than 3 months without advisory board and which is extended upto six months.
“However, if the detention has to cross six months then the matter comes under the advisory board for its consideration. The advisory board is vested with the power of validating such detention upto one and which may be extended to two years,” Lyngdoh said.
Social Welfare Minister further stated that any person who had been detained under this order and who is released under the advice of the advisory board is also liable to be rearrested and detained in case of fresh cases being filed against such person.
“We have decided to implement the Act since we want to ensure the protection of human rights as all these years we were not able to implement the Act without having an advisory board on board,” he said..
In the case of minors involved in drug trafficking, he said that they would try to take recourse to counseling.
Lyngdoh however said that in case the offences are of major quantum then they come under the Act.
Further, Social Welfare Minister said that the next course is to link up with the rest of the states which have been identified as vulnerable areas.
“Different state government should work in tandem since drug trafficking has become a regional problem since it is linked up to Burma (Myanmar) and even further,” he said.
Replying to a query, Lyngdoh said that the term of the advisory committee is for three years.