New Delhi: Being aware of the emerging racket of contraband and illegal drugs in different States across the country, the Homer Ministry has approved the setting up of the regional offices of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Amritsar, Guwahati, Chennai and Ahmedabad. The Ministry has also approved setting up new zonal offices at Gorakhpur, Siliguri, Agartala, Itanagar & Raipur to increase NCB’s pan India presence.
Setting up of a new regional office of NCB in Guwahati assumes significance following the fact that at present the Kolkata-based regional office looks after the entire anti-narcotics operation in Assam and northeast. Informing this in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said that NCB has initiated a special campaign for the destruction of seized drugs from June 2022 in collaboration with other Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (DLEAs).
“In the said campaign, more than 10,17,523 kgs of drugs has been destroyed till date, including 1,40,969 kgs of drugs destroyed on July 17 this year, with collaboration with other drug law enforcement agencies,” Rai said. He said that the Government of India has adopted two-pronged strategies to achieve the vision of 'Nasha Mukt Bharat', including drug supply reduction initiatives and drug demand reduction initiatives.
He informed that the government introduced the Narco Coordination Centre (NCORD) mechanism in 2016 to have effective coordination of actions among various ministries, departments and central and state law enforcement agencies dealing with narcotics. “The NCORD mechanism has been further strengthened by the addition of new members at different levels to make it more effective and comprehensive,” he said.
Referring to the initiatives taken by the government for drugs demand reduction launching of the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR), an umbrella scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJ&E) under which financial assistance is provided to State governments and Union Territory (UT) administrations for preventive education and awareness generation, capacity building, skill development among others.
