To check drugs, weapons smuggling Punjab to deploy anti-drone tech at the border
He said that the proposal to establish 30 exclusive NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act Courts, with an annual expenditure of ₹22.8 crore, is also under active consideration of the state government.
The Punjab government will deploy an anti-drone system by September or October to check the smuggling of narcotics and weapons through unmanned aerial vehicles from Pakistan, director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said on Monday.
Addressing the mediapersons here, the DGP said the testing of the anti-drone system has been completed.
“We have conducted tests of the anti-drone system at the Indo-Pak border and our officers have also held meetings with the Ministry of Home Affairs in this regard. By September or October, Punjab will install the anti-drone system on the second line of defence, in coordination with the Border Security Force (BSF),” he said.
He said that the proposal to establish 30 exclusive NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act Courts, with an annual expenditure of ₹22.8 crore, is also under active consideration of the state government.
The DGP said that the police is geared up to achieve the objective of making the state completely drug-free by May 31.
The Punjab top cop has called a meeting of district police chiefs and commissioners of police in which they have been asked to give plans for ensuring that “not a single gram of drugs is available in their areas post May 31.”
DGP also highlighted the achievements of Punjab Police in the ongoing drive against drugs and said that after May 31, a rigorous field assessment will be conducted, using intelligence sources and other means, to verify the actual ground reality.
“Good work will be rewarded, while, the officers, who would submit false claims or if their performance is found not up to the mark, their accountability and responsibility will be fixed,” the DGP warned the officers while addressing a press conference at Punjab Police Headquarters here.
He clarified that the focus of the police is not a figure-based target, but to completely break the supply chains of drugs across the state.
He said that CPs/SSPs have already been directed to trace forward and backward linkages of the cases being registered under the NDPS Act and take the cases to logical conclusions by exposing complete networks.
“On the legal front a conviction rate of 89% in the NDPS Act cases has been achieved since March 1, 2025, which is among the highest in the country,” Yadav said.
According to data shared by the police, since March 1, 2025, a total of 836 NDPS Act cases were decided across the state, of which, 744 cases resulted in convictions.
“Among these cases, as many as 144 drug kingpins were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of 10 years or more,” the DGP said.
Yadav was accompanied by special DGP Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) Kuldeep Singh, ADGP ANTF Nilabh Kishore and IGP Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill.
The DGP urged people of the state to make maximum use of Safe Punjab Anti-Drug Helpline ‘9779100200’ to report drug traffickers anonymously.
Notably, Punjab Police have registered 503 FIRs and arrested 659 persons from the information received from the public on the helpline.
Yadav said that police have arrested 31 hawala operators and seized ₹8.03 crore in drug money from their possession, while, under the stringent 68 (F) of the NDPS Act, the state has frozen properties worth ₹32.95 crore belonging to 81 smugglers. Additionally, 72 illegally constructed properties of drug smugglers have been demolished by local authorities in accordance with the law.
