Aizawl: Mizoram Governor General Vijay Kumar Singh on Wednesday said that the menace of drug trafficking and abuse in the state has assumed alarming proportions and become much concern to the government.
Addressing the inaugural sitting of the budget session of the state assembly, Singh said that the state’s excise and narcotics department and other law enforcement agencies have been making all-out efforts to curb the drug menace.
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He stressed the need for more vigilance to check the drug menace maintain peace in the inter-state boundaries and also prevent anti-national elements along the state border with Myanmar and Bangladesh. “The menace of drug trafficking and abuse have assumed alarming proportions today and are of much concern to my government,” Singh said while delivering his maiden speech in the state legislature.
The overall law and order situation, however, remained peaceful and no major law and order problem occurred in the state last year due to the pro-active role and constant monitoring by the state police, according to the Governor.
” Mizoram Police has been performing arduous duties for preventing disturbances in the inter-state boundaries. In order to ensure that international border areas are secured from anti-national elements, the state police, in collaboration with border guarding forces like Assam Rifles and Border Security Force (BSF), is also conducting patrolling in these areas,” he said.
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Mizoram shares about 325 km long inter-state boundaries with Assam, Tripura, and Manipur, 510 km long international border with Myanmar in the east, and 318 km with Bangladesh in the west. Singh said that 600 drug traffickers were arrested and prosecuted with 441 drug-related cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985 in the current financial year.
A total of 429.116 kilograms of various kinds of drugs have been seized and 37 foreigners were arrested in narcotic cases during this fiscal, he said.
Additionally, 4,364 people were arrested for violations of the Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition) Act, 2019 with 4,862 cases registered under the liquor law, which prohibits the sale, manufacture, and consumption of liquor, he said.
Officials said that the trafficking of drugs, particularly heroin, from Myanmar to Mizoram has increased considerably since 2021 after the military coup in the neighboring country.
They said that the Manipur unrest has also added to Mizoram’s woe as the state has been used by smugglers as a conduit to smuggle drugs from foreign countries to other states.
The 30-day budget session began on Wednesday and will conclude on March 20. Chief Minister Lalduhoma, who also holds the finance portfolio, will present the state annual budget on March 4.