Despite the a senior NCB officer’s assertion that Chandigarh does not figure among the top 10 places vulnerable to drug trade in the country, the city has been ranked second among the UTs with regard to drug seizures in the last three years. Most cases of drug peddling among UTs were registered in Delhi. Deputy Director General, NCB, Gyaneshwar Singh, stated the fact at the sideline of a regional conference on drug peddling in Chandigarh Monday. He had described Punjab, Himachal and Haryana as the most vulnerable states for drug trafficking in the country. Interestingly, all seizures of drugs made in Chandigarh in 2019 were meant for the drug trafficking, and not a single seizure involved personal consumption. As per the National Crime Record Bureau’s 2019 data, 226 cases under the relevant sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act were filed in Chandigarh. NCRB states that all the 226 seizure involved trafficking. Meanwhile, Delhi police had registered 712 cases of which 406 involved personal consumption and 306 seizures involved trafficking. The least drug peddling cases among UTs were registered at the UT, Lakshadweep, which reported four such cases. Drugs in these four seizures were for personal consumption. In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 133 drug seizures were made in 2019 and 132 seizures involved personnel consumption. SSP (UT) Kuldeep Singh Chahal, said, "Their are two reasons behind the maximum cases of drug trafficking registered in Chandigarh among UTs except of Delhi. First: Chandigarh is a transit point for the multiple states. Second: It shares the boundary with Punjab, which is a border state with a neighboring country through which drug pushed within India. Later it transported to different parts of the country. The new crafted UTs including Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
