Shah Sets December 2029 Deadline for Drug-Free India at ANTF Meet

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday set a December 31, 2029 deadline for uprooting the drug trade from the country, describing narcotics as the most serious threat facing India and the world and the hardest battle before the government.

Speaking at the third National Conference of Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) heads in Delhi, Shah said the Centre and states must shift from meeting to mission, from reporting to results, from seizure to dismantling networks, and from case to conviction if a drug-free India is to be achieved.

The two-day conference, organised by the Narcotics Control Bureau, is being attended by ANTF heads from 36 states and Union Territories along with representatives of government departments and other stakeholders.

Shah said the government had taken a series of measures over the past five years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, and that the time had come to deliver a decisive blow against narcotics. He said collective efforts would be needed to win the battle.

Drawing a comparison with past security challenges, he said the Centre had succeeded in tackling terrorism in Kashmir, insurgency in the Northeast and Naxalism with the cooperation of states, and warned that the fight against drugs could not be abandoned even though it was the most difficult of all.

Tying the campaign to the goal of a developed India by 2047, Shah said the country's youth could not be allowed to be weakened by addiction. Making India drug-free was the only option before the nation, he said, to build a Viksit Bharat, protect future generations and connect young people with development.

He described the Vision Document 2026-2029 as a guiding text for everyone involved in the campaign, saying it had been prepared after consultations with more than 35 departments and contained clear targets and timelines. The document would be reviewed periodically, he added, and neither the Ministry of Home Affairs nor the NCB could meet its objectives alone.

The roadmap, he said, rests on five pillars: enforcement, intelligence and operations; control of precursor and synthetic drugs; demand and harm reduction; and capacity building and coordination. More than 100 targets have been grouped under these heads. Under the goal of registering one lakh Nashamukt Mitras, 46,780 have already been enrolled by various ministries and are operational.

Shah called on states to form teams of officers capable of thinking out of the box to respond to emerging challenges such as synthetic drugs, the diversion of precursor chemicals, new communication technologies, the dark net, crypto, dead-drop delivery systems and international drug networks.

He said anti-narcotics efforts must move away from a seizure-centric approach towards dismantling entire networks, with backward and forward linkages, financial investigations and digital trails pursued, and the funds of drug dealers targeted. Cartels, he said, should be attacked at three levels: entry points, inter-state distribution systems and local sales networks within districts. Districts would be categorised into clusters based on whether they are points of manufacture or entry, transportation corridors, or areas of consumption.