Amit Shah virtually inaugurates new office building of NCB in Bhubaneswar

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday virtually inaugurated the newly-constructed office building of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Bhubaneswar.

Shah further said that more than 1.40 Lakh kg of narcotics of worth Rs. 2,378 Crore were destroyed in different parts of the country by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in coordination with Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) of all states, which is a record for single day.

"A total of more than 1,44,000 kg of drugs have been destroyed today. For this I thank all the states and NCB as we have been able to destroy drugs worth Rs 2,378 crore through this campaign," said Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

According to Shah, a total of 1,250 cases were registered in 2006-13 and till 2014-23, 3,700 cases have been registered. Earlier 1.52 lakh kg of drugs were seized and today it is 3.94 lakh kg which shows an increase of 160%, he said.

Earlier, the NCB Bhubaneswar zonal unit was working as a sub-zone under Kolkata. Now it has been upgraded into a full-fledged independent zone that will cover the entire Odisha. The staff strength, which was only 15, will be increased to 100 in the coming phases.

“Drugs are a social issue and the approach of government is on supply reduction through intelligence gathering and rewarding suitable informants. We will work toward a drug-free nation and Odisha as well,” said NCB Bhubaneswar Zonal Director, Rajesh Shukla.

Shukla further informed that NCB is a coordinating and nodal agency and works with other agencies like BSF, RPF, State police and excise among others.

“Earlier there were 13 offices of the NCB in the country and now it has reached 30 so that a coordinated effort is launched for a drug-free nation. As far as Odisha is concerned, there are special areas like the destruction of cannabis cultivation and check on drug smuggling on border areas,” said Shukla.

Shukla further said several cases have also come to the fore where drugs smuggler are targeting youths who are soft targets.