Tripura bats for more stringent anti-drug law

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb during the Budget session in the state Assembly said that government would implement measures to make the state drug free. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act would be made more stringent, said Deb.

Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Tuesday said that his government would focus on efforts to bring the drug nexus of the state to nothing and it would also draw the attention of the Centre to stiffen the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in order to fulfil the government's motive to make Tripura "drug free."

Deb was speaking at Tripura Assembly's ongoing budget session in response to a reference notice raised by BJP legislator Sudip Roy Barman. Barman urged the government to draw the attention of the concerned ministries and bring some stringent changes in the NDPS Act to effectively neutralize the drug nexus. Reacting to it, Deb said, after the formation of the new government in Tripura in 2018, the aim was to make the state "drugs free."

"There was enough evidence which suggested that drugs penetrated into Tripura through the borders and rampant trans-border transactions took place. All these attempts were made with an evil design in mind to create social disturbances in the society and destruction of ignited minds could be started from school and college-level", said Deb.

According to him, this government played an instrumental role in the proper implementation of the NDPS Act 1985 and the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988. As the law was given free hands to take its course, identification, arrest and detention of illicit drug traffickers, collaborators and kingpins started in full swing.

The Chief Minister said that the NDPS Act 1985 and PIT Act 1988 were special laws that required proper training of field level officers and supervisory level officers. The government had arranged all such training in Tripura with the help of central agencies. According to Deb, the central government was equally serious about to weed out the deep-seated drug nexus in the country.

Further seeking an explanation from the Chief Minister, MLA Sudip Roy Barman said that it was necessary to amend Section 21 (A) of the NDPS Act, 1985 and Section 11 of the PIT NDPS Act, 1988. According to his assessment, these laws were strict enough and criminals were easily getting bail despite being arrested with evidence.

He proposed that Section 21 (a) and 27 of the NDPS Act 1985 must disqualify bail and section 11 of the PIT NDPS Act 1988 should award two- year imprisonment "It is necessary to bring about necessary amendments in the law through sending proposals to the Centre ", Roy Barman added.

The Chief Minister also presented detailed data of the NDPS cases according to which in 2017, there were 83 cases of illegal drug trafficking and 65 people were arrested by the police. In comparison, after the change of government, a total of 433 cases were registered in 2018 and 660 people were arrested by the police.