New Delhi, October 8
Noting that drug seizure alone cannot make the country drug-free, Union Home Minister Amit Shah today asserted that the enforcement agencies should strive to destroy all channels of trafficking.
Addressing a regional meeting on ‘Drug Trafficking and National Security’ in Guwahati, Shah said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a dream to make the country drug-free. For this, coordinated efforts are necessary between central and state agencies.”
The security of the nation can only be ensured if drug trafficking and all related channels are destroyed. Insurgency, arms smuggling and other anti-national activities are linked to trafficking, the minister said, adding, “Insurgency along with arms trade and drug trafficking are two sides of a coin.”
Shah said considerable efforts had been made to tackle the issue in the Northeastern states, where drugs enter from neighbouring countries, but “it is not enough”. He also urged the Chief Ministers, Chief Secretaries, and DGPs of the Northeastern states to adopt strategies both “from top to bottom and vice versa so that the results percolate to the lowest level and the problem of trafficking can be eradicated from the roots”.
Earlier in the day, while addressing a separate event in the city, Shah asserted that Assam and the Northeastern region had been marching on the path of peace and development for the past eight years under the PM Narendra Modi-led central government.
Seventy years of Congress rule since Independence had pushed the Northeast to violence and anarchy, while in the last eight years, PM Modi’s leadership helped the region join the mainstream, Shah claimed.
