Common police and drug secretariat to be established at Panchkula for sharing data on crime and criminals

Northern states' police chiefs resolve to cut supply chain of narcotics and drugs through coordinated action

Chandigarh July 17, 2019: Police Chiefs of Northern States resolved in a meeting to cut the supply chain of narcotics and drugs besides setting up of a common Police & Drug Secretariat to share relevant information between different Police forces regarding drug smugglers and gangsters operating in the region.

The joint meeting of northern region police coordination committee was hosted by DGP Punjab Dinkar Gupta in which senior police officers from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, New Delhi and Chandigarh participated.

Dinkar Gupta, DGP Punjab proposed quarterly joint meetings of Northern Police Chiefs on rotation basis and that senior police officers heading Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Special Operations Group (SOG), Special Task Force (STF) and Special Cells should hold bi-monthly meetings for sharing vital information related to drugs and gangsters. It was also decided at the meeting to develop and implement a common IT based platform of member states for quick sharing of information to achieve better coordination and results in the drive against drugs and gangsters. All the Police Chiefs agreed to these proposals.

All the Police chiefs agreed on the proposal of Manoj Yadava DGP Haryana, to have a common Police & Drug Secretariat, both in physical and virtual space, where designated nodal police officers from the neighbouring states would be present for prompt and effective sharing of information relating to inter-state crime and criminals, especially on drugs, gangsters and heinous crimes.

The State Police Chiefs also stressed on the need for Modernisation of Jails and for involvement of various stakeholders, such as Health and Education departments, apart from NGOs, in the Drive Against Drugs, especially for effective ‘demand reduction’.

DGP Himachal Pardesh Sita Ram Mardi expressed that there should be intelligence sharing and coordinated drive and joint operations among the neighbouring States to cut the supply chain of narcotics. Punjab and HP decided to carry out joint operations in the Kangra-Pathankot area. He also proposed that biometric identification should be made mandatory for obtaining mobile phone connections and for opening of Bank accounts.

DGP Chandigarh Sanjay Beniwal advocated introduction of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the Northern states to deal effectively with gangsters and hardcore criminals. On his suggestion, it was also decided that the possibility of extending Punjab Artificial Intelligence System (PAIS) to other States would be explored.

ADGP/ATS & SOG Rajasthan Anil Paliwal proposed that effective measures to be taken for deportation of foreigners involved in drugs. IGP L&O Uttarakhand Deepam Seth mooted the idea to evolve a joint comprehensive policy on anti-drug measures for member states in which all the stakeholders and departments should be involved.

Others present in the meeting included VK Bhawra DGP Intelligence Punjab, PK Agarwal DGP Crime Haryana, Anil Kumar Rao ADGP CID Haryana, Diljeet Kumar Thakur IGP Intelligence HP, Gurpreet Deo ADGP STF Punjab, Dr. OP Mishra DIG UT Chandigarh, Dr. Ajit Kumar Singla, Addl. CP Crime Delhi, RK Jaiswal IG STF and Kaustubh Sharma DIG STF Punjab.