India signed 26 pacts to fight drug menace

Subject : Governance / IR

Context :Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) reply in the Lok Sabha on the measures taken to combat drug trafficking in India.

Concept :

Efforts taken by India to curb drug menance

International level:

India is a signatory to the UN Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 and the Convention on Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988 which prescribe various forms of control aimed to achieve the dual objective of limiting the use of narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes as well as preventing the abuse of the same.
India has signed 26 bilateral pacts, 15 memoranda of understanding and two agreements on security cooperation with different countries for combating illicit trafficking of narcotics, drugs, psychotropic substances and even their chemical precursors.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has been coordinating with various international organisations for sharing information and intelligence on transnational drug trafficking.

Domestic level:

The basic legislative instrument in this regard is the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
For better coordination among various Central and State agencies, the Narco Coordination Centre (NCORD) mechanism was set up. The NCORD system has been further extended into a four-tier scheme up to the district level for better coordination. This has ensured more effective drug law enforcement.
A Joint Coordination Committee was set up to monitor the investigation into cases involving large seizures.
The MHA has launched an e-portal called ‘SIMS’ (Seizure Information Management System) for digitisation of pan-India drug seizure data.