By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 23: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai on Monday said the ongoing ethnic unrest in Manipur has made drug cartels use the Meghalaya route to smuggle methamphetamine and heroin/morphine.
By Meghalaya route, he meant the route from Jiribam to Meghalaya to Assam and other parts of India.
Replying to a petition from Tura MP Saleng Sangma who had alleged the involvement of high-profile people of the state in illegal drug trade, Rai said Meghalaya has been a transit route for the smuggling of ganja from Tripura to other parts of the country and drugs like CBC (codeine-based cough syrup) from other parts of India to Tripura and then to Bangladesh.
He said the smuggling of sugar and betel nut (areca nut) does not come under the purview of the Ministry of Home Affairs/NDPS Act. He added that the nexus of sugar or betel nut smuggling with drugs has not been observed so far by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
The NCB, along with other drug law enforcement agencies, has conducted operations, resulting in significant seizures and arrests, he said, adding such actions disrupted the supply chain of illicit drugs, thereby reducing their availability in the region.
Rai referred to a recent operation in Silchar where the NCB’s Guwahati zonal unit seized 6.790 kg of methamphetamine tablets from a car which was destined for Cooch Behar via Shillong.
The central minister said in order to effectively combat drug trafficking in the Northeast, improve coordination among agencies and enhance the overall safety of the community, two new zonal units have been established in Agartala (with jurisdiction over Tripura and Mizoram) and Itanagar (with jurisdiction over Arunachal Pradesh).
In addition to the NCB’s existing Guwahati zone (with jurisdiction over Assam and Meghalaya), the Imphal sub-zonal unit has been upgraded to Imphal zonal unit (with jurisdiction over Manipur and Nagaland).
Additionally, a regional office under the Deputy Director General (NER), NCB has been established in Guwahati to monitor the achievements of the operations of the NCB’s zonal units in the region.
According to the minister, the NCORD (Narco Coordination Centre) mechanism has been strengthened across the Northeast for effective coordination among all stakeholders.
Under this, 30 state-level and 805 district-level meetings were held during 2020-24. Out of these, four state-level and seven district-level meetings were held in Meghalaya.
Additionally, three state-level joint coordination committee meetings were conducted in the Northeast to discuss the progress of investigation conducted in the major NDPS cases in the region.