With the porous Indo-Myanmar border exposing Manipur to the Golden Triangle of drug trade and mafias, the state has launched a ‘War on Drugs 2.0’, making it a part of the 100-day agenda of the CM Biren Singh-led new government. The Ministry of Home Affairs, too, has made fighting the drug menace in the state its top priority.
In its new avatar, the ‘War on Drugs’ initiative has an Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF). The exercise comprises a multi-pronged strategy. It covers the legal, social, human resources and technological aspects to deal with the drug menace.
Further, the police have seized 170 kg heroin, 6,920 kg ganja. Alongwith 1,265 kg opium, 520 kg brown sugar, 725 kg synthetic drugs. And 16 lakh psychotropic tablets and 63,000 bottles of drug syrups. In addition, 13,894 acres of illicit poppy cultivated areas and 20 acres of cannabis (ganja) cultivated areas were destroyed.
EYE IN THE SKY
The Manipur Remote Sensing Applications Centre (MARSAC) has been tasked to generate high-resolution data. It identify areas which have been subjected to illegal poppy cultivation in remote areas. In addition the map obtained from MARSAC has been corroborated with the images obtained from drones. On the basis of this data, relevant provisions of the NDPS Act have been applied. It is applied on landowners and village chiefs allegedly for poppy cultivation. The process will be a deterrent to any prospective illicit poppy cultivator, said experts.
STRENGHTHENING LEGAL MACHINERY
In a first, the ANTF organised a state-level seminar-cum-workshop on ‘War on Drugs 2.0’. CM Biren Singh, chief secretary, DGP Manipur and other senior police officers.
TASK FORCE IN ACTION
A seven-member Special Investigation Team (SIT), led by the IGP and ANTF, has been constituted to expedite the NDPS Act cases and for timely filing of charge sheets, besides ensuring higher convictions. Meanwhile the list of pending NDPS cases has been prepared and drug peddlers have been booked under Prevention of Illicit Trafficking in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (PIT NDPS) to ensure they don’t get bail. Meanwhile this provision under the PIT NDPS has been drafted on the lines of the National Security Act (NSA), stipulating one year of preventive detention without bail, extendable up to two years.