Northeast turning into safe haven for drug dealers
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: October 10, 2022 -

BURNING of the 40,000-plus kilogram of drugs seized by the Narcotics Control Bureau and other enforcement agencies within a span of 60 days from the north-eastern states implies that illicit drug trafficking and abusing are among the core issues plaguing the underdeveloped region.

There is no doubt that the figure of disposed drugs mentioned and reported widely in the national and regional media is only those which have no pending court cases and as such the actual quantity of the total seizure made in the same period could be much higher thereby corroborating that the mountainous region has been converted into a safe haven for drug peddlers and kingpins.

As reported, NCB Guwahati unit alone accounted for 11,000 kg of the seizure followed by 8000 kgs seized and destroyed by police and other agencies in Assam, 4000 kg in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya - 1600 kg, Nagaland - 398 kg, Manipur - 1900 kg, Mizoram - 1500 kg and Tripura - 12,000 kg.

With all these states sharing porous borders with neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, it is not surprising that drug cartels see the northeast region as the most convenient locations for transportation of psychotropic drugs to either cities in mainland India or exchange the consignment to international drug smuggling networks active in the neighbouring countries for worldwide distribution.

As law enforcement agencies in Punjab and some coastal states in the southern and western parts of the country too are periodically seizing huge quantities of drugs smuggled through both land and sea routes it is obvious that drug cartels are operating across the length and breadth of the country.

Nevertheless, the western and northern sectors of India seem unfavourable for the drug dealers as they are well fenced and have heavy deployment of security forces, thanks to the presence of a hostile nation in Pakistan, unlike in the northeast where most of the border areas aren't demarcated and people settling on either side of the international boundary are allowed free movement up to a certain distance.

As such, it is but natural that international drug lords have been pushing in the drugs in bulk and succeeding in establishing links with the local populace to expand the grey market.

Amid such a disturbing evolving situation, it is hoped that Union home minister Amit Shah would oversee that his directive to the regional governments to prevent proliferation of narcotic substances would be implemented diligently.

His statement while addressing the regional meeting on 'Drug Trafficking and National Security' in Guwahati on Saturday that seizing narcotics alone cannot make the country drug-free but enforcement agencies must aim at destroying all channels between traffickers and final consumers could be construed as expression of remorse over ineptness of the regional government to tackle the drug menace and ignorance of gravity of the situation.

In view of Amit Shah categorically stating that insurgency, arms smuggling and other anti-national activities are linked to trafficking, the regional governments are left with no option other than galvanising all their respective available resources and work out coordinated efforts to achieve the goal of making the northeast region in particular and the country as a whole drug-free.