As there seems to be no let up in the ganja cultivation in the state and smuggling of the contrabands goes unabated the government is now contemplating to encourage alternative and suitable crop to replace ganja . The state government has already pooled in the North East Council to study the ganja related economy and financial matters and find out a suitable crop that will compensate the loss for the farmers who have long been associated with ganja cultivation earning a good amount money.
The matter also came up for discussion in the recently held 76th NEC Plenary meeting in Guwahati chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and attended by Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha along with Chief Secretary J K Sinha and DGP Amitabh Ranjan.
The NEC dwelt specifically and laid much emphasis on the drugs menace in the North East and its related national security threats.
Dr Saha in a press conference in Agartala on Monday said, the state is being used by the drugs racket as corridor. The drugs are being smuggled into the state from Myanmar via Mizoram and then sent to other parts of the country and Bangladesh as well.
DGP Amitabh Ranjan who also attended the NEC Meet said, as per the NCB reports the country is facing emerging threat of synthetic drugs’ use, though in Tripura the threat is not that alarming.
The police chief said soon a narcotics coordination meeting will be organized in the state with concerned departments – and the meeting will be chaired by Chief Minister Dr Saha. Apart from that an Anti-Nartotics Task Force will also be formed to deal with the drugs trafficking. The Task force will have all the latest gadgets and be able to access the large database for end to end connectivity and identification of syndicates involved in drugs trafficking.
The Chief Minister in the press meet said, the state has already requested the NCB to set up a branch here in Tripura and also stressed on use of latest technologies like drones etc to combat the menace effectively . In the meeting Dr Saha also requested for more central funds for anti-narcotics capacity building, vehicle scanner for proper patrolling on highways and strengthening surveillance along the border.
“ Request for a branch of NCB in the state has already been proposed and coordination with the Enforcement Directorate has been stressed. Regular discussion with Bangladesh counterpart is required since Bangladesh is the end point of drugs supply,”, pointed out the Chief Minister.
Dr Saha said, the Union Minister is serious about ending the drug menace in the North East
The Chief Minister also informed the meeting about other development initiatives taken by the state government like that of 5G service, SDG, District Indicator Framework for North East, possibility of tourism industry in North East, investment in private sectors and entrepreneurship development were discussed in the meeting.
