Drug trade to be uprooted from country by end of 2029: Amit Shah

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah. File. | Photo Credit: ANI

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) set a target of December 31, 2029 to “uproot” drug trade from the country.

“For the past five years, we have been taking one step after another in an effort to achieve the difficult goal of a drug-free India...the time has now come to deliver a decisive blow against narcotics, which have become the most serious threat to the country and the world, and to achieve victory through collective efforts. By 31 December 2029, we will collectively succeed in uprooting the drug trade from India,” Mr. Shah said.

The Minister said the country’s anti-narcotics strategy should shift from merely seizing drugs to dismantling the networks behind the trade. He directed agencies to launch a campaign to deport foreign nationals involved in drug trafficking and bar them from re-entering India. Fugitive traffickers operating from abroad should also be apprehended and brought before Indian courts, he said.

Addressing the third National Conference of Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) heads of States and Union Territories in Delhi, Mr. Shah said enforcement agencies must focus on breaking entire trafficking chains through financial investigations, tracing digital links, and targeting the profits generated by drug cartels.

“Instead of maintaining a seizure-centric approach, we must move forward with the objective of dismantling entire networks,” he said, adding that cartels should be attacked at three levels: the entry point, the inter-State distribution system, and local sales networks within districts.

To sharpen enforcement, districts will be classified into three categories: those where drugs are manufactured or enter the country, those that function as transportation corridors, and those where drug consumption takes place.

Mr. Shah also called for greater use of the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PITNDPS) Act and stressed on the need for a comprehensive road map from investigation to conviction in coordination with public prosecutors.

The Minister said all loopholes along borders and drug production centres must be plugged and asked ANTFs to make the conversion of information into actionable intelligence an integral part of policing culture in their respective States.

Mr. Shah said the conference marked a transition “from meeting to mission, from reporting to results, from seizure to dismantling networks, and from case to conviction”. He described the Vision Document 2026-2029, prepared after consultations with over 35 departments, as a road map for achieving a drug-free India.

The two-day conference, organised by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), is being attended by ANTF heads from 36 States and Union Territories, along with representatives of government departments and other stakeholders. Mr. Shah said the deliberations would strengthen coordination under the “whole of government approach” and help agencies combat drug trafficking more effectively over the next three years.

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