India, Sri Lanka meet to discuss narcotics menace

India and Sri Lanka are expected to finalise a strategy to jointly tackle cross-border smuggling of narcotics and syndicates running the illegal trade between the two maritime neighbours.
This is for the first time that the anti-narcotics sleuths of both the countries are coming together to the discussion table to take up the issue of drugs menace.
The two-day conference starting tomorrow will be headed by a Deputy Inspector General rank officer of Sri Lanka and a Deputy Director General of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
Sources said the two sides are expected to brief each other about the issues and challenges faced by them in this.

"The subjects of discussion are going to be purely operational and those which are of concern to both the sides. India has such an arrangement of discussions with all its immediate neighbours," a senior official said.
The issue of sea couriers and channels of drug syndicates, sources said, would also be discussed between the two sides.
A joint record of discussion will also be signed at the end of the two-day meet, they said.