Paul to take up with Centre over increasing drug trafficking in Meghalaya

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaOctober 17, 2024

Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh on Thursday said he would soon take up with the government of India on Meghalaya witnessing an increase in the drug trafficking following the Manipur unrest.

“We are hell-bent in eradicating the drug menace in Meghalaya. The unfortunate thing is of our strategic location (that we are) very close to the golden triangle and the fact that the unrest in Manipur has led to a shift of the trade from that particular area to Meghalaya. That is the challenge. I will be visiting the national capital briefly and make sure that the leaders in the government of India are well briefed about the seriousness and scale of drug trafficking that is happening in the state,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

On the NGOs’ apprehending drug users, the minister said, “Well, the president of the HYC has a legal background. You should ask what he knows about the NDPS or PITNDPS. Whether the law of the land allows him to go and catch hold of people?”

“We are here to uphold the law and that is our primary objective and concern as a government and lawmakers. Now when you do anything that contravenes or goes against the law, your activity becomes illegal. You might just grab headlines but it doesn’t make any difference at the field level. You make news for a couple of days but then whatever you do will not stand scrutiny of the court then it becomes self-defeating,” he added.

He further explained “If you go through the NDPS, any person who seizes drugs or narcotics then they are in his possession he becomes the one who has to explain why drugs are in his custody, that is why we are trying to amplify our operation. You will realise it is for the first time that the department of social welfare has stepped into this particular space where we have gone proactive on the narcotic campaign. Earlier it was only the police. Now we have a DREAM mission headed by CM. It shows the level of our seriousness. We would like to do things in a way that we have the protection of the law and not get caught up on the wrong side of the law.”

Further, the minister also informed that many dorbar shnongs are in the process of constituting the village defence parties (VDPs) to tackle the drug menace at their level.

“It may not be visible to your naked eye but a lot of dorbar shnong are in the process of constituting VDPs. The lull that is happening because in Shillong city, there are just 11 legally constituted VDPs. Most of the areas, which fall under high-risk zones, do not have these VDPs. When they don’t have them, there is no backup of the law and most of the time, they end up getting frustrated, as they have to appear before court, they are dragged to cases, FIRs are lodged against rangbah shnong and dorbar shnong – so all of that will be substantially reduced once we have VDP in place as it is a legal framework backup by law and which work in tandem with the police department,” he said.