Synthetic drug trafficking rising; Tripura govt adopts zero-tolerance policy against narcotics: CM Saha

Agartala, Aug 28 (IANS) Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Friday said that the state government adopted a zero-tolerance policy and is undertaking a sustained crackdown on narcotics, while the illegal trade in synthetic drugs has increased in recent years, replacing traditional and naturally derived narcotics in many instances.

Replying to a series of questions raised by senior Congress leader Gopal Chandra Roy on the second day of the Monsoon Session of the Tripura Assembly, the Chief Minister said that the state government, along with security agencies and the state police, has been making all-out efforts to prevent drug smuggling into the state.

“Due to the state government’s sustained efforts, the conviction rate of drug peddlers and illegal traders increased to 14.7 per cent this year till July, against 11.7 per cent in 2023,” Saha, who also holds the home portfolio, told the House.

Congress legislator Roy alleged that a section of police personnel was involved in the illegal drug trade and other narcotics-related activities. The Chief Minister, however, reiterated that nobody found involved in unlawful activities related to narcotics would be spared at any cost. Besides taking legal and punitive actions against drug traffickers and peddlers, the state government has also undertaken a massive awareness campaign highlighting the harmful effects of drug abuse, he said.

“I have personally urged parents and guardians to remain more alert so that their school- and college-going children do not get involved in drug abuse,” Saha said. The state government has also increased coordination between the police and the judiciary to further improve the conviction rate, he said, adding that the state police have set up a special unit to deal with cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

Congress MLA Roy claimed that drugs were being smuggled into the state through railways and that narcotics-related trade and activities had spread across Tripura on a massive scale.

Meanwhile, according to senior police officials, highly addictive methamphetamine tablets, which are banned in India, heroin and various other narcotic substances, including cough syrups containing Codeine Phosphate that are illegally used as drugs in Bangladesh, are smuggled into Tripura from other Indian states, including those in the Northeast.

Mizoram and Manipur have emerged as major drug-trafficking corridors in the Northeast because of their long and porous international borders with Myanmar and their proximity to the Golden Triangle, one of the world’s major illicit narcotics-producing regions.

Myanmar shares a 1,643-km border with four Northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur (398 km), Nagaland (215 km) and Mizoram (510 km) — with substantial stretches remaining unfenced, making the region vulnerable to cross-border trafficking of drugs, particularly heroin and methamphetamine tablets.

Myanmar’s Chin State is also considered a key route for the smuggling of various narcotics, exotic wildlife and other contraband through six districts of Mizoram. Similarly, five districts of Manipur sharing an unfenced international border with Myanmar have emerged as vulnerable corridors for drug trafficking.

–IANS

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