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Union Home Minister Amit Shah, at a narcotics press conference in Panaji, announced a three-year roadmap from July 2026 to July 2029 for a drug-free India, run in mission mode with fixed timelines and quarterly outcome reviews.
The roadmap rests on four pillars — intelligence and operation-based enforcement, precursor and synthetic drugs control, demand and harm reduction, and capacity building and coordination — with 25 components and over 200 action points.
Seizures were placed at over 1.19 crore kg worth about Rs 1.89 lakh crore in 2014-2026, against 26 lakh kg worth about Rs 40,000 crore in 2004-2014.
De-addiction centres are to be tripled to 1,751, and every state is to get a fully equipped Anti-Narcotics Task Force by March 2027 with 7 per cent central assistance.
Enforcement is being aimed at the trafficking routes the Minister called the Death Triangle and Death Crescent, with financial investigation and PIT-NDPS action as the sharp end.
National nodal agency against drug abuse and illicit trafficking, constituted on 17 March 1986 under the NDPS Act, 1985; coordinates action by central and state agencies. Its cadre has been restructured under the current push.
Four-tier coordination structure created in its present form in 2019 — apex, executive, state and district levels — to align central agencies with state governments on drug enforcement.
Platform linking more than 14 central agencies and all state police forces to route Interpol notices and extradition requests, used for the fugitive campaign described in the release.
The principal statute prohibiting production, sale, purchase, transport and consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, and the law under which the NCB was constituted in 1986. Punishment is graded by whether the quantity is small, intermediate or commercial.
A preventive-detention law, not a prosecution law: it lets the Centre or a state detain persons engaged in illicit trafficking, with Advisory Boards reviewing each detention. The roadmap's emphasis on PIT-NDPS means going after habitual traffickers without waiting for a trial to conclude.
Demand-side campaign combining community outreach, awareness in educational institutions and treatment linkage to reduce substance use.
Key: Launched on 15 August 2020 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in 272 most-vulnerable districts chosen from NCB inputs and the National Survey on Drugs; extended to all districts on 15 August 2023.
Let citizens report trafficking anonymously and seek de-addiction and rehabilitation advice.
Key: Launched on 18 July 2024 with toll-free number 1933, plus a web portal and mobile and UMANG app access, run by the NCB round the clock.
A national database of arrested narco-offenders so that agencies can connect cases across states.
Key: Built by the NCB as part of the NCORD portal and made operational in 2022; it draws records from the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System and e-Prisons, covering crime history, personal details, fingerprints and court cases.
The Golden Triangle is where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand meet near the Ruak-Mekong confluence, today the source of opium and large volumes of methamphetamine. The Golden Crescent spans Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, with Afghanistan the largest opium producer. India sits between them, which is why its enforcement is described as a quadrangular approach.
Simple Analogy: India lies between two open taps and spends its effort on the pipes.
GS Paper 3 > Internal Security > Challenges of Organised Crime and Money Laundering
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Institutions
Narcotics institutions and the two trafficking belts recur regularly in Prelims and in internal-security answers
The four-tier narco-coordination mechanism — apex, executive, state and district — that binds central agencies and state governments into a single enforcement chain.
Legally traded chemicals used to manufacture synthetic drugs; controlling their diversion is the second pillar of the roadmap.
Tracing and attaching the proceeds of drug crime rather than only prosecuting possession — the route through which ED, FIU and banks enter the roadmap.