Why Punjab has sought Rs 600 crore from the Centre for dealing with drugs cases

First, what are NDPS courts?

NDPS courts are established nether the NDPS Act of 1985. It is the main authorities that deals with drugs and their trafficking. Various provisions of the Act punish the production, manufacture, sale, possession, consumption, purchase, transport, and usage of banned drugs. Under the Act, peculiar courts tin beryllium acceptable up to effort specified cases.

Mann emphasised the urgency of clearing the backlog of NDPS cases, which stood astatine 35,000 arsenic of January 1, 2025. He requested Shah’s involution to supply Rs 60 crore annually to the authorities for the adjacent 10 years. The funds would beryllium utilised to acceptable up exclusive NDPS courts, name nationalist prosecutors, and prosecute supporting staff.

What is the pendency of NDPS cases successful Punjab?

At the existent disposal rate, it takes an mean of 7 years for a league tribunal to implicit the proceedings of pending cases (excluding recently added ones). Without intervention, this timeline could agelong to 11 years wrong 5 years, with the backlog projected to emergence from 35,000 to 55,000 cases.

To wide the pendency wrong 5 years, Punjab requires 79 caller NDPS peculiar courts and the assignment of 79 nationalist prosecutors with supporting staff, Mann said. The authorities has besides sought backing nether the National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse (Chapter 7-A of the NDPS Act) for:

• Anti-Narcotics Task Force operations

• Live monitoring systems successful six borderline districts

• Technical surveillance instrumentality and infrastructure for 5G jamming solutions successful prisons

• De-addiction centres successful jails and AI surveillance systems

• A peculiar situation for cause traffickers

• Anti-drug consciousness campaigns successful each 28 districts

Additionally, Punjab has requested Rs 8,846 crore from the 16th Finance Commission to tackle narco-terrorism and cause maltreatment comprehensively.

Why is Punjab seeking the Centre’s help?

Punjab faces unsocial challenges related to the smuggling of drugs owed to its geography. It shares a 552 km planetary borderline with Pakistan, with a 43 km fencing spread and a 35 km riverine gap. This makes it susceptible to cross-border cause trafficking. The authorities besides lies adjacent the “Golden Crescent,” a large cause way passing done the opium-producing regions of Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Mann pointed retired that accrued vigilance and fencing person pushed traffickers to trust connected drones, reducing the hazard of interception. He called cause trafficking a nationalist problem, highlighting its imaginable to destabilise socio-economic structures and urged the Centre for a collaborative approach.

In September 2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court highlighted the request for peculiar NDPS courts successful Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh to expedite pending cases. A part seat of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma had urged the Chief Justice to prosecute with authorities governments connected this issue. The Bench described having peculiar NDPS Courts successful Punjab, Haryana, and Chandigarh arsenic a “dire necessity”. The tribunal noted the prolonged delays successful trials and their interaction connected granting bail nether Section 37 of the NDPS Act.

A Law Commission study of 1997 besides noted that “inherent weaknesses successful the enforcement of NDPS Act” request to beryllium tackled. Among the reasons cited for it was the non-establishment of capable peculiar courts for speedy trial.

How has Punjab attempted to ace down connected drugs?

Punjab’s cause crisis has been ongoing for the past fewer decades. As per the authoritative figures, arsenic galore arsenic 46,746 cases nether the NDPS Act were registered by the territory police, State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), and Government Railway Police successful the 51 months betwixt January 1, 2013, to March 31, 2017. Under the Congress government, for a akin fig of months, 46,273 cases were registered betwixt April 1, 2017, and June 30, 2021, by the aforesaid agencies.

Since the AAP authorities came to powerfulness successful 2022, it has registered implicit 31,500 NDPS cases, arresting 43,000 accused and seizing 3,000 kg of heroin, 2,600 kg of opium, and 4.3 crore pharmaceutical drugs.

Illegally acquired spot worthy Rs 449 crore belonging to cause traffickers has been frozen. The authorities besides maintains a database of 3,32,976 criminals, including implicit 1 lakh cause offenders, with cause seizure records and dependable investigation for amended lawsuit management. In the past 5 years, Punjab has reported 1,247 drone sightings and recovered 417 drones.