Cases under NDPS Act rise in Kangra

Lalit Mohan
Tribune News Service
Dharamsala, January 27

There has been spurt in cases registered under the NDPS Act in Kangra district. This year, the Kangra police have registered 270 cases under the NDPS Act — the highest ever in the district.

Santosh Patial, SP, Kangra, said this year, 311 drug peddlers, including 42 females, have been arrested under the Act in the district.

The issue of increasing drug peddling in the state has hogged limelight in the recent past. In the last winter session in December at Dharamsala, the Himachal Assembly passed a Bill proposing amendment in the NDPS Act under which carrying even small quantity of narcotic substances has been made a non-bailable offence. Though, many members of the House expressed concern over the stringent conditions proposed in the Bill, it was passed by a voice vote. The Act will become a law once it gets assent of the President.

In Kangra district, about 90 per cent of the drug peddlers have been arrested from the border areas along Pathankot in Punjab. The Himachal Police maintain that most of the synthetic drugs such as heroin were making inroads into the state from adjoining Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

However, the youth in rural areas were addicted to heroin. In November last, Sachin Katoch, a youth from Indora area, died due to overdose of heroin. A drug peddler, Rimpy, who sold the heroin, was arrested. She was still under judicial custody.

Drugs such as charas that is produced from cannabis plant are grown in Himachal and exported from here to other states. Some of the legislators have been demanding that the agriculture of cannabis for medicine purpose should be allowed in Himachal to boost the income of farmers. They claimed that Uttarakhand Government had already legalised cultivation of cannabis for medical purpose.