Panaji: Union home minister Amit Shah said here Sunday that the Centre would completely seal India’s borders to stop the inflow of narcotics from Myanmar and Afghanistan, asserting that India would be made drug-free within three years.“Drugs production is not the only issue, but we are stuck between two borders which are centres for narcotics production. Narcotic substances enter the country from the Myanmar side and another from the Afghanistan side. The Myanmar border is open and govt is sealing the border… but the border is complicated,” Shah said.He also said a three-year roadmap from July 2026 to June 2029 is ready to create a ‘drug-free India’. “I will personally visit all the states to make Bharat nasha mukt,” Shah said.Shah described the fight against drugs, after the end of Naxalism, as the country’s biggest national battle — a resolution to protect youth, families, economy and national security.“We will not allow a single gram of drugs to enter India, nor a single gram of drugs will go outside the country using our routes,” he said, adding that 100 hidden narcotics laboratories would be destroyed over the next three years.He said the strategy to dismantle narcotics networks would focus on four outcomes: supply reduction, demand reduction, harm reduction and capacity building and coordination.“By adopting a quadrangular strategy, we are taking the necessary steps to curb the smuggling of drugs into the country through the routes of Death Triangle (Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand) and Death Crescent (Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan),” Shah said.He said before 2014, action against narcotics was undertaken in “bits and pieces” and in isolated silos, with enforcement largely limited to small seizures and action against small-time accused.From 2004 to 2014, 2.6 million kg of drugs worth Rs 40,000 crore were seized, while from 2014 to 2026, more than 11.9 million kg of drugs worth Rs 1.89 lakh crore were seized, he said.Between 2020 and July 2026, more than 29,968 kg of synthetic drugs, worth over Rs 19,600 crore, were seized, Shah said.“From 2019 to July 2026, a total of 93.3 lakh kg of narcotics and psychotropic substances were seized. From just 2024 to June 2026, all enforcement agencies confiscated properties worth Rs 1,841 crore in 3,016 cases — we seized the drugs along with their money,” he said.Shah said more than 100 criminals involved in the narcotics trade had been brought back to India.
