Agartala: While batting for setting up of a unit of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to deal with drug trafficking incidents in Tripura, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Tuesday said that the state has recorded the highest seizure of drugs and narcotics in four years in Northeast region.
He informed the Union Home Minister during the meeting with CMs of Northeast in Guwahati two days ago and made it clear that India would not compromise to the slightest extent to illicit drug trafficking to and from the country.
The intelligence report revealed that Tripura is being used as the corridor of drug trafficking in the region, which the state government would handle with an iron hand, the Chief Minister stated adding that from 2018 to August 2022 as many as 2,701 persons have been arrested in connection with 1,776 drug and narcotics-related cases.
Over 1.92 kgs of cannabis, 8.88 lakh bottles of banned cough syrup, 45.63 lakh tranquilizing tablets, and 18,073 grams of Heroin were seized in different parts of Tripura during the period. The police have been working in a coordinated manner against the drug rackets operating in the state.
“Illicit drugs are being sourced from Myanmar via Tripura and transported to Bangladesh. Over the years, this nexus has grown stronger, and to mitigate the crisis we have to put in concerted efforts. We have already taken a slew of steps to tackle the drug menace on our own and also requested the center to help us in this fight,” Dr Saha said.
He mentioned that Tripura shares the porous international border with Bangladesh which is why the state is prone to drug trafficking. More than consumption, Tripura is being largely used as a corridor for drug smuggling. The Union Home Minister has been requested to speed up the barbed wire fencing of the Indo-Bangladesh border and help Tripura to introduce advanced technologies like drones and satellite imaging to keep a tab on the unfenced patches.
“I have said that life and the livelihood of a sizable number of farmers are associated with cannabis cultivation in Tripura. In reply, Shah asserted efforts to replace cannabis with relatively profitable crops,” the CM pointed out.
