Enforcement agencies must destroy all channels of trafficking: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday asserted that drug seizure alone cannot make the country drug-free.

Addressing the regional meeting on 'Drug Trafficking and National Security' here, the Union Home Minister said that enforcement agencies must aim at destroying all channels between the traffickers and the final consumers.

On the occasion of Azadi ki Amrit Mahotsav, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a dream to make the country drug-free and for this, coordinated effort is necessary between central and state agencies, Shah said.

The security of the nation can only be ensured if drug trafficking and all related channels are destroyed as insurgency, arms smuggling, and other anti-national activities are linked to trafficking, he said.

''Insurgency along with arms trade and drug trafficking are two sides of a coin'', he said.

The Union Home minister urged the law-enforcing, health, revenue, and social revenue departments to adopt a twin-pronged approach for ensuring that

drug trafficking is stopped.

''We must be harsh with the traffickers while at the same time the victims must be dealt with sensitively'', he said.

Shah said that considerable efforts have been made to tackle the issue in the Northeastern states, where drugs enter from the neighbouring countries, but ''it is not enough''.

He urged the chief ministers, chief secretaries, and directors general of police of the Northeastern states to adopt strategies both ''from top to bottom and vice versa so that the results percolate to the lowest level and the problem of trafficking can be eradicated from the roots''.