PANJIM: Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said that from 2019 till date the State government has deported nearly 650 Nigerians, who were staying illegally in Goa and currently 50 more Nigerian nationals are to be deported.
After attending a high-level regional meeting in virtual mode chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on ‘Drug Trafficking and National Security’, Sawant said his government has taken all steps to crack down on illegal parties and has also demolished illegal clubs in the State.
Sawant said as many as 161 cases of illegal drugs have been registered and drugs worth Rs 4.5 crore have been seized by the police. The process to increase the staff strength of Coastal Police and Anti-Narcotics Cell for both, North Goa and South Goa districts is underway.
The Chief Minister said that migrants especially labourers travelling by railways and buses and international tourists arriving in Goa peddle drugs into the State. He further informed that the Home Minister has asked other western States to follow the model of Goa, by having detention centres and deport such foreigners to their respective countries.
Earlier, addressing the regional meeting, Shah said it is very important to crack down on heroin smuggling from the west coast of the country and Gujarat has done a great job in this direction.
Shah said, “Narcotics are impacting our youth, illegal money coming from its trade is also financing terrorism, to strike a blow on both these fronts the Government of India, all the agencies of State governments and the police should work jointly with one objective.”
Drug proliferation is not a Centre or State issue but a national one and efforts to combat this should also be national, he said adding that by adopting top to bottom and bottom to top approach, there is a need to destroy the entire network of drugs by attacking both, the source and destination of drugs, he said.
