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Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday directed the agencies, police, and concerned departments under the Central and State governments to adopt "ruthless" approach towards the drug supply chain, emphasizing a commitment to prevent any drugs from entering the country and ensuring that India's borders are not used for drug trafficking. Shah's directives came while chairing the 7th Apex Level Meeting of the Narco-Coordination Center (NCORD) here in the national capital in the presence of chiefs of various central and state agencies belonging to police, Narcotics Control Bureau, National Investigation Agency as well as Central Armed Police Forces.Noting that the drug trade is now associated with narco-terror, posing a serious threat to the security of the nation, as well as this trade also strengthens the channels that weaken our economy, Shah said drug cartels get involved in hawala transactions and tax evasion, and this is a multi-layered crime which we need to deal with it harshly. He said that agencies need to continue with "the top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top approach and focus on busting the drug network and not focus on nabbing the ones who are addicted." He said that every small amount of drug seized should be traced back to its origin and every big consignment should be investigated to trace the possible peddlers."Synthetic drugs are a big problem. Many illegal labs have been busted. I appeal to the agencies to find out more such labs in their states. We also need to determine that neither a gram of drugs enters Bharat nor a gram of drugs is sent to other countries through Bharat. We are a part of the world and cannot win this battle in isolation," Shah said. Within the nation, the Home Minister said we need to continue with our integrated battle and to make the NCORD meetings the forums for decisions and reviews.The Minister suggested the officials that every district needs to fix its goals and review its achievements. "They need to keep track of how many youths have been sent to rehabilitation centres and how many cases of connivance in drug trade and economic offences have been unearthed. They need to make these meetings outcome-based and result-oriented and need to frame their strategies according to local needs. Regarding the sharing of information, our agencies adopted the policy of need-to-know, but now it should be changed to duty to share. Bharat is an independent nation. We should trust our system. We need to continue with a ruthless approach to bust the drug supply chain, a strategic approach to demand reduction, and a human approach to harm reduction," directed the Home Minister to the officials took part in the meeting.In the last five years, the Minister said we carried out this battle through structural, institutional and informational reforms and proceeded through the whole of government approach. "The outcome of this approach is very encouraging. From 2004 to 2013, the amount of drugs seized was 1.52 lakh kgs which increased to 5.43 lakh kgs during the period 2014 to 2024. The value of drugs increased from Rs.5933 crore to more than Rs.22,000 crore during this period," said Shah. Speaking in the meeting, Shah congratulated all the agencies for the success achieved in the battle against drugs in the last five years. However, he said that the achievements made till now amount to only 10 per cent of the tasks that should be done.At the event, Shah also launched MANAS (Madak Padarth Nisedh Asuchna Kendra) portal, inaugurated Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Zonal Office at Srinagar, released NCB 'Annual Report 2023' and Compendium on 'Nasha Mukt Bharat'.Shah said MANAS has been launched aimed at capacity building for the centre of excellence for narcotics control. "I appeal to form Joint Coordination Committees at the state level and strict review of financial investigations at the state level and to inform them in the central agencies of the finance ministry. I also appeal to the central agencies to file suo moto cases."The states need to spend a chunk of their budgets on narcotic forensics. Forensic Science University is working on a swadeshi, a cheap forensic narcotics testing kit that will help agencies file cases of drugs. Secretaries need to issue orders to enhance the awareness about the Manas portal and also its use," Shah said.

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