Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday stressed on working as "team India" in fighting drug menace even as his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar also sought to put up a joint fight to break the network.
They were addressing the gathering at a national conference on drug trafficking and national security at the Raj Bhawan here.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah was the key speaker at the event. Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Haryana Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and Narcotics Control Bureau chief S. N. Pradhan were also present.
Speaking about his government's action against drugs smuggling, Mr. Mann said 4,903 FIRs have been lodged and 6,809 smugglers nabbed in the recent drives.
He stressed on a unified action by states to curb the narco-gangster-terrorist nexus. "We will have to work as a 'team India' against drugs, terrorism and gangsters, and we have to fight unitedly," he said.
‘Don’t indulge in credit war’
Mann urged the states not to indulge in a "credit war", but focus on eliminating gangsters, drug smugglers and terrorists. He said the states should come up with a foolproof strategy to get the desired results.
The Punjab Chief Minister also highlighted the issue of supply of drugs through drones in border areas and said efforts were being made to combat this problem.
Many drones fly from the state to get the supplies from across the border, Mr. Mann said, adding some IIT students met him and gave a presentation on dealing with the problem of drones.
"We are working on a drone jammer project so they could not fly," he said.
Support and cooperation offered to the Centre
Mr. Mann also offered support and cooperation to the Centre to set up a forensic laboratory in the state. He said despite being a border state with a huge threat of drugs smuggling, weapons and others from the other side of the barbed wire, Punjab does not have any such laboratory to check drugs.
Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Khattar said drug addiction and drug trafficking are a matter of concern for the entire world. "We need to put up a joint fight to break this network," the Haryana chief minister said. He said if one state's police cracks the whip on the peddlers, they shift to the neighbouring states.
"The network of drug dealers is spread all over the country. Law enforcement agencies of various states are putting up a tough fight to break this network. However, this problem can be curbed if the law enforcement agencies of different states work unitedly with mutual coordination," Mr. Khattar said.
More than 200 drug cases are registered in Haryana every month. Giving a breakdown, he said, 1,913 cases were registered in the state till June 30 in which 2,661 accused were arrested.
Around ₹32 crore was recovered from 253 drug smugglers and the process of confiscation of their property worth ₹13 crore is underway, he added.
On the murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala, Mr. Mann said the shooters involved in the killing did not get payment from their bosses. Mr. Moosewala was killed in May. The Punjab Chief Minister said efforts were being made to bring the mastermind from Canada.
