As part of the 2-day seized drug disposal program, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma drove a road roller on thousands of bottles of seized illegal cough syrups. The CM also set fire to seized drugs worth crores in an event held at Berhampur in Nagaon district.
The CM was participating in the event to destroy drugs worth Rs 36 crore seized by police in Nagaon district in the last two months. While the drugs like heroine, brown sugar, ganja and other narcotic products were burnt, a total of 78340 cough syrup bottles could not be burnt due to the huge quantity of liquid. Therefore, a road roller was used to destroy the bottles, and the CM inaugurated the same by driving the road roller himself on the seized bottles.
Apart from the illegal cough syrups, 9.733 kg heroin, 253.301 kg ganja, 977 opium, and 271904 nos. of tablets were burnt in the event.
Later in the day at a separate event in Hojai, 353.62 grams of heroin, 736.73 kg ganja and 45,843 tablets were destroyed as part of the ‘seized drugs disposal’ program. Similarly, yesterday seized drugs were destroyed in Diphu and Golaghat.
The Assam government organised seized drug disposal programs yesterday and today at several places in the state to destroy various kinds of drugs caught in the last two months. According to the CM, seized drugs worth Rs 163.58 crore were destroyed in the last two days.
While most of the seized items are narcotic products, there were some pharmaceutical products obtained through illegal channels, thereby avoiding taxes. CM Sarma said that It involves evasion of GST and is a severe dent to the economy. He informed that the Assam govt is working in coordination with Manipur and Mizoram to eliminate drugs menace from North East India.
“Some anti-social elements have been taking advantage of Assam’s proximity to Golden Triangle and using our land as transit routes for drugs trafficking. However, we’ve been firm in our resolve to handle this menace with strictest measures. The results are visible,” the CM tweeted, referring to the massive anti-drugs program launched by the Assam police on the instructions of Himanta Biswa Sarma after he became the CM.
The Golden Triangle that the CM mentioned refers to a mountainous region where the borders of Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet. It is Southeast Asia’s main opium-producing region and one of the oldest narcotics supply routes to Europe and North America. As several North-Eastern states share borders Myanmar, it is easy to smuggle drugs from the region to India through these states.
