Modern devices must at check gates to tackle drug menace
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: July 26, 2022 -
THE frequency of arrest of Manipuris along with psychotropic drugs in neighbouring Nagaland and Assam testifies that drug dealers see and use the state as an important transit route.
With hundreds of vehicles of varied shapes and sizes transporting passengers and goods along the two national highways that connect Manipur with the rest of the country on a daily basis it is possible that transportation of large quantities of the banned drugs goes undetected.
Such huge volume of traffic is certain to make the task difficult for the law enforcement agencies to manually check every vehicle and items, consequently emboldening the drug peddlers to give a shot for living life with all the worldly comforts.
The recent decision of the Nagaland government to remove all but handful of police check gates along the Imphal-Dimapur section of the National Highway-2 too would be enticing for the drug dealers as reduction in the number of checking points is exactly what the anti-social elements look for.
The fact that the arrested drug peddlers hailing from different parts of the state also indicate that unlike in the past, when the drug carriers used to be from specific communities, many individuals are ready to take the risk and make earn easy money if successful in handing over the consignment to the dealers.
Notably, drug peddling is neither the domain of male folks alone as could be comprehended from handful of Manipuri women arrested by Assam and Nagaland police in recent times nor is it confined to the civilian population considering the fact that Manipur police personnel too had been apprehended with drugs.
The government of Manipur’s declaration that police personnel found involved in drug smuggling would be immediately terminated from service also seems to be having not many serious takers as the proceed from a single successful drug shipment is more than what one could save during the service period.
As such it’s not surprising that Assam police busted an inter-state drugs racket with the arrest of two persons, including a constable of Manipur Police.
As per the statement of Guwahati’s joint commissioner of police the seized drug consignment consisted of one lakh Yaba tablets, which is a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine, brought from Moreh near the India-Myanmar border and meant for sending to Bengaluru via Guwahati.
That such a huge quantity of Yaba tablets went undetected all the way from the heavily-policed Imphal-Moreh and Imphal-Mao routes till they were seized by the Assam police smacks of either duty negligence or incompetency on the part of the law enforcement agencies manning the numerous check gates.
As drug smugglers are known to modify chambers of vehicles to hoodwink the security personnel, it is high time that the government authorities expedite the process for installing reliable electronic device and deploying sniffer dogs to prevent proliferation of drugs without which stopping the drug menace wouldn’t be possible.
Even if top officials of security agencies confer, chalk up mechanism and agree on security coordination to tackle drug trafficking, which is emerging as a major challenge in the northeast region, it would
be wishful thinking that those working at the ground level could sniff out the drugs from the heavily loaded vehicles.
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