Shillong: Meghalaya Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Thursday said the government is stepping up its efforts to tackle drug-related crimes by focusing on two key areas — cutting off the supply chain and rehabilitating drug users.
Tynsong said the government’s anti-drug mission, DREAM is headed by retired IGP Francis Kharshiing, has already started work with a team comprising officials from the police, social welfare and other departments.
His remarks came amid concerns over incidents of crime allegedly linked to drug use, including a recent incident in Nongmensong where a girl was stabbed after resisting an alleged mobile phone snatching, and another incident in Laban where earrings were reportedly snatched.
“These incidents keep taking place, no doubt about it,” Tynsong said.
He said the government has identified two major challenges in tackling the drug problem — blocking the supply of drugs and ensuring rehabilitation for those battling addiction.
“Now we have to identify and block the holes of supply. And the second one is rehabilitation for those addicts,” he said.
Tynsong said rehabilitation is a long-term process that requires treatment and counselling before an individual can recover from addiction.
On the enforcement side, he said the police have already created a dedicated Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF), which is working to intercept drug supplies entering Meghalaya.
“They are always on the job to make sure that any supply coming from different parts of Meghalaya is stopped somewhere. Not only stopping, but we seize it,” he said.
The deputy chief minister also stressed the need for coordination with neighbouring states, saying Meghalaya cannot tackle the drug problem in isolation.
“Drugs, it has to transit maybe from one state to another state, and maybe not only that, from outside the territory of India also. So, see, it’s not as simple as we just see,” he said.
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Tynsong said the government would continue to strengthen its efforts to ensure that the anti-drug operation achieves its intended objective.
“As I said to you, from the government side, we are trying our best to make sure that this operation that we are doing will ultimately come to a successful,” he said.
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