5 northern states and 2 UTs to set up centralised secretariat at Panchkula to tackle drug menace

Five northern states Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Union territories of and Delhi and Chandigarh have decided to set up centralised secretariat at Panchkula (Haryana) to tackle the drug menace. It was decided at in inter-State regional conference of Chief Ministers organised in Chandigarh by Haryana government on issue of “Drug menace, challenges and strategies”.

Key Facts

The conference was was attended by Chief Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana), Amarinder Singh (Punjab) and Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand). Himachal Pradesh counterpart Jairam Thakur attended it through videoconferencing. It decided to set centralised secretariat at Panchkula which will host nodal officers from each of these northern states and UTs. These officers will be deputed for sharing intelligence and information. It aims to have mechanism for quick and proactive information exchange on drug trends, cases registered and persons named, wanted or arrested. It will host monthly meeting of special task forces and quarterly meetings at level of Home Secretaries to build inter-agency trust to break and demolish the supply chains to tackle the drug menace.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2018