In ‘advisory’, NCB asks states to shift some cases to agency

NEW DELHI: Allaying apprehensions that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), by suggesting to the states to identify few cases relating to narcotics for handing over to it, was trying to infringe upon the rights of the state governments, sources in the central government on Friday said the letter was merely a reminder to states to “consider” taking NCB’s help as the latter was the competent agency and had the wherewithal to probe inter-state and international linkages of such cases.
A letter written by NCB DG Satya Narayan Pradhan had, citing the Centre’s vision of ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat’ and the need for Central and state narcotics crime probe agencies to work in close coordination, stressed that states may, if found appropriate and expedient, identify cases having inter-state and international ramifications and consider handing them to hand over to NCB to undertake the task of trying to unearth the entire network. “The identification of such cases may kindly be done at the earliest,” Pradhan said while asking states to furnish an action taken report to NCB so that the home ministry could be apprised.
Sources said the letter is not a “direction” but only an “advisory” or “reminder” to states that NCB is there to carry out in-depth investigations into major narcotics cases.