Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Monday said he has sought the Union government’s support for utilizing advanced technologies like drones and satellite imaging for combating the drug menace.
“During the meeting with the Union Home Minister at Guwahati on narcotics control and national security, I mentioned that Tripura shares a 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. I have urged the Union Home Minister to speed up the fencing process and help Tripura to introduce advanced technologies like drones and satellite imaging to keep a tab on the unfenced patches,” Dr Saha told a press conference at the civil secretariat here in Agartala.
According to the CM, already the state had taken a number of initiatives to curb the drug menace. “In schools and colleges, we have formed ‘Prahari (Sentinel)’ groups for collecting information regarding students who are on drugs. A special investigation team has been formed with the task to investigate 19 complicated cases. In seven of them, accused persons had been convicted already.”
He said the Union Home Minister also agreed on most of the points he raised during the meeting and passed a clear instruction to all that not a single inch of the country’s land should be used for illicit drug trafficking or growing of contraband corps. “I have said that the life and livelihood of a lot of farmers are associated with Ganja cultivation in Tripura. The Home Minister said that he would make efforts to replace cannabis with relatively profitable crops,” said CM.
“Tripura Police Department is already working in close coordination with central agencies like Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau and on a number of occasions our police teams got training from Eastern Police Academy, National Police Academy, NCB and Central IB. Following the money trail, our police have seized properties worth Rs 6.5 crore and contraband including drugs worth Rs 200 crore. Since most of the drugs are entering Tripura through Assam and Mizoram, I have proposed monthly coordination meetings between superintendents of police of the bordering districts,” he pointed out.
DGP Tripura Police Amitabha Ranjan said that Tripura Police’s Anti-Narcotics Task Force would soon be incorporated into a national pool of anti-narcotics task forces constituted by different states for end-to-end investigation. Elaborating further on the topic, he said, “Most of the drugs that are being seized in Tripura are synthetic in nature. And, apprehensions are strong that over a period of time more deadly drugs could reach Tripura which is right now limited to Cannabis, methamphetamine tablets, brown sugar and heroin. An SIT was formed to investigate the drug cases and now we have already traced links of people spread in ten states. For the sake of investigation, I can’t reveal much but these are large industries that we are following up on now.”
He said that Tripura Police is hosting its first Anti-Narcotics Coordination Meeting in Agartala this month and after that state’s anti-narcotic task force which has been already put into action will be added to the national pool.
“The idea is that all the anti-narcotic task forces of all the states will be in the same network which will enable the police to trace people across the country. The ANTF centres are being set up in all states that will work in close coordination with each other. Resultantly, the investigation of such cases will be more streamlined and tracking links of drug lords and kingpins would be far more easier,” Ranjan said.
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