Use full force of NDPS Act to curb drug networks, Home Minister Amit Shah tells southern states

To achieve the goals of becoming a developed nation by 2047 and a 5 trillion economy by 2025 as prescribed by PM Narendra Modi, India needs a drug-free society, Shah said.

He said the home ministry has been working on tackling drugs with the four-prong agenda of detection of drugs, destruction of the network, detection of the culprits, and rehabilitation of the addicts. “We have built our programme on these four pillars to achieve the goal of elimination of addiction,” he said.

“Until we find the details of the working of drug networks, we will not be successful. What I want to tell the agencies in the southern states and the governments is that we cannot have changes until our approach is changed. We need to have a top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top approach to investigations,” the home minister said. The top-to-bottom approach involves the seizure of drugs by the Coast Guard on the information of the Intelligence Bureau and RAW and the follow-up investigation to find the receivers and distribution networks. “The investigation must unravel the entire network,” Shah said.

“When a person is arrested for consumption of drugs, while the effort should be at rehabilitation, there should also be a focus on finding the suppliers to the consumers. No case should be seen as an individual case. This strategy is needed to break drug networks at a fast pace,” the home minister said.

Apart from the home ministry, the health, revenue, education, and culture ministries must be involved in the battle against drugs, he said. “The fight against drugs is not a fight that is restricted to any individual governments but involves all the departments of all the governments – it involves a ‘whole of government approach’ – and must extend beyond the government to the society at large. The aim is to rid the country of the scourge of drugs,” Shah said. Nearly 9,298 kg of seized narcotics worth Rs 1,235 crore was destroyed to mark the conference, he said.

The home minister said that a total of 1,257 drug cases were registered between 2006–2013 which increased to 3,172 between 2014-2022 (152 per cent increase) while the total number of arrests during the same period increased by 260 per cent to 4,888 from 1,362. While .52 lakh kg of drugs were seized between 2006-2013, this doubled to 3.30 lakh kg between 2014-2022. Drugs worth Rs 768 crore were seized during 2006-2013 and this increased 25 times to Rs 20,000 crore between 2014-2022, Shah said.

The home minister said that there is a need to increase coastal security and that a tighter vigil should be maintained on the southern sea routes.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Rashtriya Raksha University and the Karnataka government to open a new campus in Shivamogga in the presence of the home minister.