Srinagar, Aug 14: Illegal drugs and narcotics remains a pressing issue with far-reaching consequences, encompassing health, social, and economic dimensions that affect individuals, families, and the community on a profound level.
The UT Government is committed to fight the drug menace through a coordinated and multi-pronged approach which includes prevention, enforcement, treatment and rehabilitation & IEC strategies.
The steps taken to address the problem of illegal drugs and narcotics is being reviewed under Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) mechanism through regular meetings of UT NCORD chaired by the Chief Secretary.
The forum has been committed to ensure adoption of “Zero Tolerance Policy” against drug trafficking to curb the menace of drugs by strengthening of institutional structure, coordination among all narco agencies and extensive public awareness campaign. In the 10th UT level NCORD meeting held recently, various issues were discussed and instructions issued to all the concerned departments/organizations.
Among these directions, the law enforcement agencies, particularly the J&K Police has been instructed to ensure intelligence sharing, strict action, effective and lacuna free investigation in all cases of drug trafficking. The NCORD has emphasized leveraging information from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and the NIDAAN portal to target drug peddlers more effectively.
Significant Law Enforcement Achievements
In its efforts against drug abuse, the J&K Police has achieved substantial results, marked by rigorous law enforcement actions, large scale seizures, effective judicial proceedings and extensive community engagement. Since 2023, a total of 3190 cases have been registered and 4536 persons have been arrested in the crackdown against illegal narcotic trade network. In order to break the supply chain, the Law Enforcing Authorities have invoked PIT NDPS Act against the drug kingpins, resulting in 463 orders of detention for the last 18 months.
This has been supplemented with swift intelligence resulting in interception and seizure of huge amount of commercial quantities. During the year 2023, the number of commercial quantity seizures was 319, whereas, the figure for the year 2024 upto June stands at 110. To prevent pilferage of seized narcotics, drugs are disposed of through court-ordered incineration. In 2023, 29,306 kg of drugs and 74,179 pharmaceuticals were destroyed, with 4,365 kg of drugs and 26,772 pharmaceuticals destroyed in the first half of 2024.
Addressing the Link Between Narcotics and Terrorism
This government acknowledges the need to arrest the linkage between narcotics and terrorism and this has manifested in the crackdown on narco terror networks involving arrest of 39 persons in 19 cases during the past one and a half year.
Enhanced Regulation and Monitoring
UT level NCORD has also laid stress on strict regulation of the sale of psychotropic substance and other related drugs through introduction of Computerized Billing System (CBS) and CCTV installations across all drug market of wholesale and retail license holders, through Drug Control Organization/Health and Medical Education Department.
Besides, the Committee has also instructed the Excise Department as well as the district authorities to monitor the details of the land being used for cultivation of contraband substances so that effective action is taken in the matter. In this regard, the J&K Police has under taken significant efforts to destroy illicit crops, particularly poppy and cannabis. During 2023, illegal cultivation of poppy and cannabis over 9448 Kanals of land was destroyed by the law enforcement agencies.
Commitment to Rehabilitation and Awareness
On the rehabilitation front, the government has taken substantial measures like establishment of de-addiction centers. Other than the 04 drug de-addiction centers of the Social Welfare Department and 21 Health/Additional Treatment Facility centers (ATFs), the police department has also established 10 drug de-addiction centers. In the year 2023, there have been a total of 14180 OPDs and 1931 IPD treatments. These figures for 2024 upto June stand at 5318 and 561 respectively. Besides, there are 06 private drug de-addiction centers functioning within the UT of J&K.
The UT level NCORD has instructed to ensure strict implementation of SOPs for monitoring the activities of drug de-addiction center besides taking action against such centers operating in private sector which do not meet such requirements. Besides, Health and Medical Education Department has also been asked to explore the possibilities of supplementing the resources of the centers being managed by J&K Police and Social Welfare Department. DIAL 104 Call Centre by National Health Mission is holding online counseling and Tele-Manas (Telephonic psychological counseling) @ 14416 is operational for helping those affected by the drug abuse.
