Southern States to coordinate to tackle narcotics trafficking

Inter-State meet discusses strategies to combat menace

Southern States such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka will work together with Andhra Pradesh and Odisha to tackle narcotics trafficking with special focus on ganja that is grown in huge quantity in the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam and Odisha.

This was decided at an inter-State coordination meeting on strategies to combat narcotics trafficking’ here on Monday. The meeting was chaired by DGP of A.P. Gautam Sawang and attended by senior officers from the other states and stakeholders such as police, DRI, NCB and SEB.

Briefing the media after the meeting, Mr. Sawang said that cultivation of ganja in the AOB (Andhra Odisha Border) region was not new but had been happening for decades. But the time had come to put in a concerted effort to eradicate it. For this there was a need for coordination between the States and various other departments, and A.P. had taken the lead.