Much maligned over
drug trade, addiction, abuse and trafficking, Punjab ranks third among states where highest number of FIRs registered under the NDPS Act in three years between 2019 to 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has informed the Rajya Sabha.
Giving details of the number of FIRs registered under NDPS Act all over the country, Minister of State for Home, Nityanand Rai, also detailed several measures which have been put in place by the Union and state governments to curb the drug menace.He was replying to a question put by Congress MP KC Venugopal.
The highest number of drugs related FIRs have been registered between 2019 to 2021 in Uttar Pradesh (31,482) followed by Maharashtra (28,959), and Punjab (28417).The data shows that Punjab registered 11,536 FIRs under NDPS Act in 2019; 6,909 in 2020 and 9972 in the year 2021.
Last month, Punjab Police had shared data of the special anti-drugs drive it had conducted after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann made an announcement in this regard in July 2021.It stated that in the one year period between July 5, 2022 to July 7, 2023 it had registered 12,218 FIRs under the NDPS Act as part of the CM’s war on drugs.
The data shared by the MHA also shows that there was a marked decrease in such cases in Punjab in the year 2020.This was the time when the Covid epidemic was raging across the world.
There was also a marked decrease in the number of cases registered in Uttar Pradesh.However, the numbers did not fall in Maharashtra and have remained constant in the same Covid period.
Among the union territories, highest number of FIRs have been filed in
Jammu and Kashmir (4,076) followed by Delhi (2,026) and Chandigarh (449) in the same time period.The minister informed that the government has approved creation of four new regional offices of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) at Amritsar, Guwahati, Chennai and Ahmedabad and five new zonal offices at Gorakhpur, New Jalpaiguri, Agartala, Pasighat/Lower Siyang and Raipur, the minister said.
12 sub-zonal offices of NCB have been approved to be upgraded as zonal offices at Amritsar, Dehradun, Srinagar, Jaipur, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Imphal,
Goa, Bhopal, Cochin, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad.Further, 425 new posts have also been created in NCB to strengthen the organizational structure.
Since illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and its abuse is a trans-national problem, the central government has entered into bilateral agreements with 27 countries, signed memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with 16 countries and has two agreements on security cooperation for preventing illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursor chemicals, the minister informed.
He added that to prevent inter-state movement of narcotics across the country using railways’ network, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) has also been empowered under NDPS Act, 1985 for search, seizure and arrest.
To mitigate the problem of drug trafficking through maritime route, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has been empowered under the NDPS Act-1985 for making interdiction of narcotics at sea.In order to prevent smuggling along border areas, various border guarding forces such as BSF, SSB and Assam Rifles have been empowered under NDPS Act, 1985 to make interdiction of drugs.
A special Task Force on dark net and crypto currency has also been constituted to monitor suspicious transactions related to drugs and a dedicated Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) headed by ADG/IG level police officer has been established in each state/UT.
The influx of drugs into Punjab from Pakistan has continued unabated and as per figures shared by sources in the BSF, this year alone 260 kg of heroin, 19 arms, 30 magazines, 470 rounds of ammunition and 30 Pakistani drones were recovered from Punjab’s border areas till the month of July..
