GUWAHATI/SHIMLA/DEHRADUN: Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday sent a strong message to drug traffickers by personally driving a tractor over a massive cache of seized narcotics worth ₹472 crore, declaring that smugglers would meet the same fate as the drugs they peddle.
Reaffirming the Assam government's zero-tolerance policy, Dr. Sarma said the state has seized drugs worth over ₹3,000 crore in the last five years, arrested more than 26,000 persons under the NDPS Act and built a strong deterrent against the narcotics trade.
"We are now going a step further. With the Union Government's support, we are tracking the entire inter-state drug network.
This Centre-State joint approach will help identify habitual offenders, intercept traffickers at state borders before they enter Assam and build stronger cases for prosecution," he said.
Issuing an unequivocal warning, the Chief Minister declared, "We will be ruthless in this fight against drugs—that's a promise and a warning."
Earlier, Dr. Sarma had said that the masterminds of drug syndicates may be hiding in foreign jurisdictions, but the Modi government would pursue them wherever they are, while the Assam Police continues its crackdown on local handlers.
The symbolic crushing of the seized narcotics, however, has also raised questions over the actual method adopted for their disposal.
Under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and prescribed disposal procedures, seized narcotic substances are generally destroyed through high-temperature incineration after completion of legal formalities and certification by authorised drug disposal committees.
It remains to be clarified whether the bulldozer exercise was purely symbolic before the drugs were sent for scientific destruction through authorised incineration, or whether all statutory disposal protocols were followed during the exercise.
The destruction drive was projected by the Assam government as another step in its continuing war against narcotics, aimed at sending a stern warning to drug syndicates operating within and beyond the state's borders.
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