Amit Shah sets 2029 deadline to uproot drug trade
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday declared that India will uproot the drug trade by December 31, 2029, framing narcotics as the most serious threat facing the country and the world. Speaking at the 3rd National Conference of Anti-Narcotics Task Force heads in New Delhi, Shah said the time had come to deliver a decisive blow through collective effort.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, he noted, the Government has taken one determined step after another over the past five years toward the difficult goal of a drug-free India. That campaign must now intensify. Shah pointed to recent successes against other long-standing challenges: terrorism in Kashmir, insurgency in the Northeast, and Naxalism. With the cooperation of the States, the Ministry of Home Affairs had brought these problems, which had confronted the country for decades, under control.
The fight against drugs, he acknowledged, is the most difficult of all these battles. Yet it cannot be abandoned. Shah linked the campaign directly to India’s larger future. To build a Viksit Bharat by 2047, to save the coming generations, and to keep the country’s youth connected to national development, he said, the only option is to make India drug-free. The nation must fight the problem unitedly and with passion, and win.
The address set the tone for the two-day conference organised by the Narcotics Control Bureau. ANTF heads from all 36 States and Union Territories, along with representatives of concerned Government departments and other stakeholders, are participating.
On the same occasion, Shah inaugurated the conference and launched a series of television commercials to raise public awareness about narcotic substances. He laid the foundation stones for new zonal complexes of the NCB in Lucknow and Dehradun, expanding the Bureau’s operational presence in two important regions. Best-performing ANTFs from States and Union Territories were honoured for their work.
The Home Minister also launched the NCB’s newly designed website to strengthen information sharing and public outreach. The combination of a firm political deadline, recognition of high-performing units, new infrastructure, and a public-awareness drive underscores the Government’s intention to treat narcotics as a national priority on par with the security challenges it claims to have already rolled back. Shah’s message was unambiguous: incremental progress is no longer enough. A time-bound, coordinated assault on the drug trade is now the stated objective, with 2029 as the target year for success. Meeting that deadline will depend on sustained Centre-State coordination, stronger enforcement against trafficking networks, reduced demand, and effective rehabilitation.
For the moment, the Home Minister has placed the campaign at the centre of the national agenda and called on every State and Union Territory to treat it with the same urgency previously reserved for terrorism, insurgency, and Left-wing extremism. The conference, now underway, is meant to turn that call into a working plan.
