STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Thursday said India will not allow “even a gram” of drugs to come into the country, as he exhorted anti-narcotics agencies to adopt a “ruthless” approach to dismantle supply chains.
He was addressing senior officials of the central and state anti-narcotics agencies during the 7th apex level meeting of NCORD, or narco-coordination centre, in the national capital.
Shah also launched the MANAS helpline number ‘1933’ along with an email id — [email protected].
These can be used by people to give information about drug trafficking to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). Information can also be submitted on ncbmanas.gov.in.
“The entire drug business is now linked with narco-terror, and the money generated from the drug trade has become the most serious threat to the country’s security. The goal of all agencies should not only be to nab drug users but also to bust the entire network,” Shah said.
He added that his government “will not let even a gram of drugs come into India, nor will we allow India’s borders to be used in any way for drug trafficking”.
“There should be a ruthless approach towards the drug supply chain, a strategic approach towards demand reduction and a human approach for harm reduction,” he said during the meeting at the Vigyan Bhawan here.
The home minister stressed that agencies use both the “top to bottom and bottom to top approaches” to dismantle drug supply chains. Shah said if a drug comes into the country through a land, water or air port, it should be tracked and checked till the last point where it is trafficked to.
The minister said in the last five years, the Narendra Modi government has based its anti-drugs battle on the whole-of-government approach and structural, institutional and informational reforms.
Earlier, the mantra of the agencies was “need to know” but now they should move towards the functionality of “duty to share”, and all agencies need to adopt this significant change, Shah said.
“The government will soon provide less costly kits for the preliminary testing of narcotics, which will make it much easier to register cases by all the agencies,” he said.
Shah said Prime Minister Modi has set the goal for India to be foremost in every field by 2047 and this can only be achieved by keeping the younger generation away from the scourge of drugs. He also released the NCB’s ‘Annual Report 2023’ and a compendium on ‘Drug-Free India’ during the meeting.
