Golaghat, July 17: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said the state police in the past two months have seized narcotics worth Rs. 170 crore, which is about 20-30 per cent of the total worth of narcotics market in the state.
Assam Police launched a “war against drugs” in mid May this year after being encouraged by the ‘zero tolerance’ approach towards drugs by Sarma, who took charge as state’s Chief Minister along with Home department on May 10, 2021.
IVE from the program on ‘Seized Drugs Disposal’ . Diphu. https://t.co/AVWebh1iWN
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 17, 2021
“We have managed to recover narcotics worth Rs 170 crore in the past two months through proactive participation of our police department. This, however, is only 20-30 per cent of the state’s narcotics market. Which means, Assam has a narcotics market that is worth Rs 2000 crore to Rs 3000 crore,” Sarma said during a function at Golaghat in Upper Assam during which a massive amount of the seized narcotics was destroyed publicly.
Assam has in the past two months seized 18.82 kg of heroin, 7944.72 kg of cannabis, 67371 bottles of cough syrup, 1270394 number of unprescribed sedating tablets, 1.93 kg of morphine, 3 kg of methamphetamine and 3313 kg of opium, a release by the Assam Police mentioned. Besides Golaghat, a substantial amount of these seized narcotics were burnt in Diphu, district headquarters of Karbi Anglong in Assam’s southern hills.
Fight Against Drugs @assampolice is firm in its resolve to create a ‘Drugs Mukta Assam’.
Today, in Diphu, we destroyed 11.88 kg Morphine, 2.89 kg Crystal Meth, 3.47 kg Heroin, 102.91 kg Cannabis & 2,03,384 nos. tablets.
We are proud of our state police. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/udNWCjnT5S
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) July 17, 2021
Both Karbi Anglong and Golaghat, connected to Assam’s neighbouring state Nagaland, have been routes for narcotics to enter the state from neighbouring country Myanmar via Nagaland, for quite some time.
“We were only aware that Assam was a transit route for narcotics from neighbouring countries to mainland India, but looking at the size of the narcotics market, we can say that this addiction has taken over several youths in Assam too,” Sarma said during the meeting.
According to police, atleast 834 drug related cases have been registered in the past two months in connection with which 1,424 persons have been arrested so far.
“There have been certain incidents of those involved in drugs trafficking cases of attempting to escape and police had to shoot on their legs. For these actions, our police have received certain criticism too. But, as being Assam’s Chief Minister, I give complete freedom to Assam Police to take sternest actions within the ambit of law while dealing with such criminals. Infact, I encourage them to take the strictest of the strict steps as given to them under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC),” Sarma said.
