Punjab records highest drug related cases country-wide: Narcotic Control Bureau

CHANDIGARH: Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) today said that there is no let up in drug menace within Punjab as the state has registered 50 per cent of the total drug related cases in the country.

"During the last year, a total 30,000 cases of drug peddling were registered in the country out of which 15,000 alone were from Punjab," Chandigarh's NCB Zonal Director Kaustubh Sharma said here today.

He said that the NCB recently caught two persons Sukhbir Singh and Lakhbir Singh with huge quantity of heroin. "After their arrest NCB got certain leads of the accused having political links," he added.

Refusing to comment on multi-crore synthetic drug racket unearthed by police in Punjab, he said that the matter is under the scrutiny of High Court.

"The HC has made the NCB a party in the case and it has filed its report," he said.

"The consumption of opium is maximum in Punjab," he said. He also said that in Himachal Pradesh, Kasol a hill station in Parvati Valley, on the way to the pilgrim town of Manikaran, located 42 km east of Kullu at a height of 1640 m, has become a hub of "drug tourism."

He said that the NCB had destroyed several tracts of opium sown in high hilly areas near Kasol.

Meanwhile, he said that June 26 will be observed as International Day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking. The NCB has planned several activities that will last for a fortnight.

These activities include awareness rallies in area, essay writing competition in schools, painting, slogan writing and debate competition in different schools.