Northern states to join hands to break drug supply chain

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 17

Police chiefs of northern states on Wednesday resolved in a meeting to cut the supply chain of narcotics and drugs, besides setting up of a common police and drug secretariat to share information between different forces regarding drug smugglers and gangsters operating in the region.

The meeting of northern region police coordination committee was hosted by DGP Punjab Dinkar Gupta in which senior police officers from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, New Delhi and Chandigarh participated.

Gupta proposed quarterly meetings of police chiefs on rotation basis and bi-monthly for senior police officers heading Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Special Operations Group (SOG), Special Task Force (STF) and Special Cells.

It was decided to develop an IT platform for quick sharing of information to achieve better coordination and results in drive against drugs and gangsters. The police chiefs also agreed on the proposal of Manoj Yadava, Haryana DGP, to have a common police and drug secretariat, both in physical and virtual space, where designated nodal police officers from the neighbouring states would be present for prompt and effective sharing of information.

The police chiefs also stressed on the need for modernisation of jails and for involvement of various stakeholders such as health and education departments, apart from NGOs, in the drive against drugs.

Himachal Pardesh DGP Sita Ram Mardi said there should be intelligence sharing and coordinated drive and joint operations among the neighbouring states to cut the supply chain of narcotics.

Chandigarh DGP Sanjay Beniwal advocated introduction of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act in the northern states to deal effectively with gangsters.