Until we emphasise cooperation, coordination and collaboration among departments to weed out narcotics in the country, we will not be successful in our efforts, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday.
Shah chaired the 'Regional Conference on Drug Trafficking and National Security' held in the city, where Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and representatives of five southern states and three union territories, were also present. In their presence, 9,298 kg of seized narcotics worth Rs 1,235 crore were destroyed.
Shah noted that becoming a drug-free society is important to achieve the larger goal of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025-26 and a fully developed country by 2047.
He urged people not to think of this as just a single government's initiative, but one that involves the collective efforts of every department across the states. He said that from 2014 to 2022, 3,172 cases were registered, showing a 152 per cent increase from 2006-2013, and a total of 3.30 lakh kg of drugs worth Rs 20,000 crore were seized. From 2014 till date, 5,94,620 kg of seized drugs, valued at Rs 8,409 crore, have been destroyed in the country, he added.
On the occasion of the conference, Bengaluru City Police destroyed narcotics weighing a total of 4,297.8 kg worth Rs 90.08 crore in Dobbaspet Industrial Area. This included 4,110 kg of ganja, 11 kg of ganja oil, 22 kg of hash oil, 8 kg of opium, 5.5 kg of charas, 62.7 kg of MDMA powder/crystals and 8,073 tablets collected by all the police stations in the city, between October 2022 and March 2023.
Shah urged all government agencies to adopt a top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top approach to bust and investigate drug rackets in the country. The approach to dealing with drugs involves drug detection, network destruction, culprit detention and addict rehabilitation, he said.
Published 24 March 2023, 17:03 IST