Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday presented a vision document and a three-year roadmap to combat the drug menace, stating that the country is working towards becoming “drug-free” by 2029. He described the fight against drugs as one of the country’s biggest national challenges after Naxalism.
Addressing a press conference in Goa on Sunday afternoon, Shah said the government had drawn up a roadmap to achieve the target by 2029. He said narcotics trafficking is a crime that affects future generations, while the “dirty money” generated through the trade is also used to finance terrorism.
“Narco-terror modules have come up in several countries and the whole world is plagued by this issue,” Shah said.
Shah said that since 2019, the government has undertaken several efforts to counter narcotics trafficking, including dismantling trafficking networks and breaking financial chains. He also alleged that under the Congress-led government before 2014, action against drugs was carried out in “bits and pieces” and “silos”, with the focus largely limited to small seizures.
“In 2019, we made it a priority issue for national security. A four-tier NCORD (Narco Coordination Centre) mechanism was created and we integrated local police with the national strategy by establishing dedicated anti-narcotics task forces in all states and union territories,” he said.
Shah said the government had also shifted from seizure-centric action to network-centric enforcement, carrying out both bottom-to-top and top-to-bottom investigations focused on identifying kingpins, associates, distributors and suppliers.
The quantity of narcotics and psychotropic substances seized has increased significantly since the BJP-led government came to power in 2014, Shah said. According to him, 26 lakh kg of narcotics and psychotropic substances were seized between 2004 and 2014, compared with more than 1.19 crore kg between 2014 and July 2026.
The four-pillar approach outlined in the vision document includes intelligence- and operation-based enforcement, precursor and synthetic drug control, demand and harm reduction, and capacity building and coordination.
After the press conference, Shah travelled to Chimbel near Panaji to inaugurate the BJP’s new state headquarters in Goa. However, the programme was called off following the building collapse in Delhi, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said.
“As there is a tragedy in Delhi, we have decided that we will not be going ahead with the function,” Sawant told the media.
