Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired the 3rd Apex Level meeting of Narco Coordination Centre (NCORD) here in the national capital aimed at discussing drug-trafficking-related issues and their solution.

The meeting started around 3 pm and it was attended by Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Director IB Arvind Kumar, Narcotics Control Bureau Chief S.N. Pradhan, Director Generals of Border Security Force and Sashastra Seema Bal, Chief Secretaries and DGPs of states and their representatives and administrators in the Union Territories (UTs) along with various concerned departments.

Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana also joined the meeting which is organised in a hybrid model.

This high-level committee meeting was also attended by senior officers from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Revenue (Ministry of Finance), and Indian Coast Guard.

The NCORD is a mechanism under Director-General NCB. It is constituted in order to have effective coordination among all the drug law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders, and also to provide a common platform for discussions on drug-trafficking-related issues.

Revamped by MHA to create a 4-tier structure to improve coordination in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) matters, similar two NCORD meetings have been arranged in previous years and discussed issues related to NDPS policy and operational matters of the drug law enforcement agencies.

The meeting is significant as it is expected to take stock of the existing drug abuse and trafficking scenario in the country and discuss the possible mechanisms to address the same.

In particular, the issues related to large scale heroin trafficking from neighbouring countries, the diversion, and abuse of pharmaceutical preparations containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, the emergence of synthetic drugs and New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), and issues related to poppy cultivation in the country are also likely to be discussed in the meeting.