To further strengthen the Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) and completely eliminate the narco nexus in the state, Uttar Pradesh Government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is working on a war footing to complete the construction of six new state-of-the-art forensic labs in the state.
To combat drug traffickers, work on establishing cutting-edge forensic labs in six districts of the state is underway. These new labs are being built in Saharanpur, Ayodhya, Banda, Basti, Mirzapur, and Azamgarh. The state will have a total of 18 forensic labs. At present, 12 labs are functional in different districts.
DIG, ANTF, Abdul Hamid informed here on Sunday that it takes a long time to send the seized drugs to the forensic lab for testing. At the same time, it takes more than 15 days to receive the test results for these samples.
“The new forensic lab will reduce the time it takes to deliver drug tests. In addition, the investigation report for these samples will be available within a week, which will help in putting drug dealers behind bars through effective court lobbying,” he said.
Similarly, discussions are taking place at the government level regarding the division of jurisdiction of ANTF-operated police stations in Meerut, Barabanki, Gorakhpur, Ghazipur, Jhansi, and Saharanpur. This may also receive approval soon. Aside from that, an amount of Rs 37.25 lakh will be released soon for the purchase of modern equipment for ANTF.
It should be noted that in August 2022, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced the formation of ANTF to put a stop to illegal drug dealers. In the last six months, a total of 16 actions were taken in 11 districts of the state by the ANTF.
ANTF DIG Hameed said that about 10 kg of illegal smack, 21.02 kg of illegal opium, 7.1 kg of illegal charas, and 966.498 kg of ganja have been seized from various districts, which are worth Rs 16.68 crores in the international market.
During these operations, the team arrested 36 illegal drug dealers while recovering 13 vehicles, one illegal .32 bore pistol, and nine live cartridges from the criminals. In light of these actions, the government is putting together an action plan to strengthen the ANTF further.
