Ahmedabad: Gujarat state seized over 87,000 kgs of drugs worth Rs 9,600 crore in the last four years, leading to the arrest of 2,600 individuals, as revealed by the state's Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi on Monday. Speaking at the launch of an anti-drugs campaign, an initiative of the Gujarat police, Sanghavi highlighted that 251 cases had been registered and 353 persons arrested this year alone. "We are waging a war against this menace.
We are launching an anti-drugs campaign to take this fight from the cities to the villages. As part of it, ADGP rank officials will adopt different districts to implement the campaign. Officials will visit districts for a few days every month to conduct awareness programmes and review the progress," he said.
As per police data, 2,607 accused persons have been arrested and 87,605 kg of narcotics worth Rs 9,679 seized between 2021 and June 2024. This haul does not include contraband seized by central agencies such as Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau, Customs, Coast Guard and Border Security Force, officials said. "Under this campaign, awareness programmes against drugs will be organised at district-level at schools, colleges, religious places etc by involving social media influencers, social, political and religious leaders.
The state government has also approved a separate budget for more rehabilitation centres in coordination with the Health Department to give addicts timely treatment and counselling," Sanghavi said.
