Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah chaired the Regional Conference on ‘Drug Trafficking and National Security’ at Bengaluru, Karnataka today. The conference was attended by representatives from 5 southern states and 3 union territories. In the presence of the Union Home Minister, 9,298 kg of seized narcotics worth Rs 1,235 crore were destroyed. Apart from this, a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between the Rashtriya Raksha University and the Government of Karnataka to open a new campus of the University at Shivamogga.

The Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that Government of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has adopted a policy of zero tolerance against drugs to make a drug-free India. He said that under AzadikaAmritMahotsav, during the 75-day campaign starting from June 01, 2022, a target was set to destroy 75,000 kg of narcotics. But, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a total of 5, 94,620 kg of narcotics worth Rs 8,409 crore have been destroyed so far, overachieving the target manifold. Out of the total narcotics destroyed so far, 1,29,363 kg worth Rs 3,138 crore have been destroyed by NCB alone. Amit Shah said that on the directions of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Home Affairs has adopted a three-pronged approach to crackdown on narcotics. This three-pronged approach includes strengthening institutional structures, Empowerment of all agencies related to control of narcotics and strengthening the coordination among them and launching an awareness campaign. He said that the problem of drug trafficking is not related to a state or the Centre alone, but a national problem and the efforts to deal with it should also be national and unified.He said that the fight against drugs is to be fought not only by the government but also by people. To deal with this issue, he also stressed on the need to organize District-level and State-level NCORD meetings regularly.The Union Home Minister emphasized that in order to crack down on the entire network, narcotics cases should be thoroughly investigated, with a bottom to top and top to bottom approach. He added that no case should be investigated in isolation. Shah informed that a total of 1257 cases were registered between 2006–2013, which increased by 152 percent to 3172 between 2014-2022, while, the total number of arrests during the same period increased by 260 percent to 4888 from 1362. Similarly, during 2006-2013, 1.52 lakh kg of drugs were seized which doubled to 3.30 lakh kg between 2014-2022, drugs worth Rs 768 crore were seized during 2006-2013, which increased by 25 times to Rs 20,000 crore between 2014-2022.

Amit Shah said that there are four pillars of the Modi Government’s campaign to eliminate menace of drugs from the country: Detection of drugs, Destruction of Network, Detention of culprits, and, Rehabilitation of drugs abusers.He said thatall the states should make proper use of NCORD portal and NIDAAN platform for effective action against drug trafficking. He said that it was also the need of the hour to strengthen the Anti-Narcotics Task Force constituted in various states so that decisive action could be taken in the fight against narcotics. He also said that apart from this, various provisions of the NDPS Act should also strictly be implemented. He said that Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has adopted a “Whole of the Government” approach against drugs and all departments and agencies should move forward to make a drug-free India by increasing cooperation, coordination and collaboration.Apart from this, he added that there is a need to increase the focus on coastal security and sea routes and tighter vigil should be maintained on the Southern Sea Route.