Even as the 17-member opposition Congress cornered the Gujarat Government over “increasing” infiltration of drugs in the State Assembly on Tuesday, Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi asserted that the State Police have seized narcotics worth more than Rs 54,000 crore from coastal areas in last two years and that 56 people from different countries have been arrested.
Replying to questions by Congress MLAs, which had initiated a discussion on large quantities of drugs pushed through the State’s coastal areas, Sanghavi maintained, “The Gujarat Police are active and fighting the drug menace in coordination with central agencies.”
Congress attacks BJP over drugs issue
Senior Congress leader Amit Chavda said the youth in Gujarat was being ruined and the government had miserably failed to check the influx of drugs. Quoting a local English paper report, Chavda said now even women were into the drug trade and school and college going children were being made the targets. He alleged that the drug inflow had increased for the last 6-7 years and the BJP government had failed to control it.
Another senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadhia asserted that it was unfortunate that Gujarat had become a “gateway for drugs.” He blamed the State Police for not having an intelligence and information network and they worked only on inputs by the central agencies.
'Gujarat not a transit point of drugs influx'
The minister argued this was not true and all State agencies, including the ATS, the State Police and the Narcotics Cell are working in tandem to arrest the culprits and seizing huge drugs consignments. He said that all who had been arrested were in jails and there would be no relief for them.
Sanghavi admitted, “I don’t claim that Gujarat is not a transit point of drug influx and no youth are addicted, but still our State has the lowest drug seizure rate in the country. The neighbouring Rajasthan has a rate of 3.8%, Punjab stood at 32.8%. As against this, Gujarat has a seizure rate of 0.7% and these numbers could be verified from the National Crime Records Bureau.”
