NCB backs out from fight against drug cartels in HP

Himachal Pradesh Police’s fight against drug cartels has no support from Central anti-drug agencies. The Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) this time has backed out from the campaign undertaken by the police to destroy cannabis cultivation.

Himachal Pradesh Police’s fight against drug cartels has no support from Central anti-drug agencies. The Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) this time has backed out from the campaign undertaken by the police to destroy cannabis cultivation.

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“Till date nobody has contacted me from the NCB. I have no knowledge what the NCB is doing this time,” superintendent of police, Kullu, Ashok Kumar told Hindustan Times over telephone. Police has undertaken a campaign to destroy cannabis cultivation that grow wild in the arduous treks and forestland across the length and breadth of Kullu district.

Hemp – the tenacious weed gets ready for harvest in August. It was last month that police teams fanned out in the upper reaches and the interior areas to destroy cannabis that grows over nearly 8,000 bighas of land mapped by the police. All these years the Narcotic Control Bureau has been contributing in weeding out hemp plants in the valley. The NCB provided both logistic s and financial assistance to tackle the drug trade. The annual turnover of the drug trade in Himachal Pradesh is estimated at whopping Rs 2,000 crore.

In spite the repeated efforts, the NCB regional directorate in Chandigarh did not respond to telephone calls. Till two years back, the NCB worked in tandem with Himachal Pradesh Police to curb the drug trade and had busted many drug cartels.