On the occasion of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26, Haryana Police will organise coordination meeting of police chiefs of seven northern states and union territory of Chandigarh to evolve strategies for fighting drug abuse and illicit trafficking fight.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal will address the participants during concluding session. Chief Secretary DS Dhesi, Additional Chief Secretary, Home SS Prasad and officers from Narcotic Control Bureau, New Delhi would also attend the meeting.
Haryana Director General of Police Manoj Yadava on Monday said that a co-ordination meeting of Director Generals of Police (DGsP) of northern States to discuss challenges of drug abuse and illicit trafficking and strategies to combat the same would be held at Chandigarh on June 26.
Police Chiefs from the states of Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Union Territory Chandigarh would participate in the meeting, the DGP said.
Earlier also, on the initiative of Chief Minister, a joint meeting of Chief Ministers and officers of northern states was held on August 20 last year to effectively deal and eradicate the menace of drugs from society.
Referring to the agenda which was planned by Haryana DGP in consultation with his counterparts, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Navdeep Singh Virk said that objective behind organizing the meeting is to bring about the required synergy and coordination of efforts among Police forces of northern region for combating the activities of organized gangs and smuggling network active in this region.
He said that major areas of concern to be discussed and shared with other counterparts included an overview of overall drug scenario in northern region, role of intelligence sharing and coordinated operations, creating inter-state database of drug smugglers and effective enforcement of provisions of NDPS Act. Apart from reviewing the functioning of Inter-State Drug Secretariat, learning about the best practices adopted by neighboring states would also be discussed, Virk added.
In last year’s meeting attended by Chief Minister Manohar Lal, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Uttarakhand CM TS Rawat and Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur, it was decided to set up a common central secretariat in Panchkula for sharing data and information to counter the menace of narcotics in north India.