Gujarat: Drugs caught by coastal police in one year more than liquor seized in 50 years

Nilesh Jajadiya, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Coastal Police, stated in Gandhinagar on February 10 that the amount of drugs collected in a single year exceeds the amount of illegal alcohol seized from Gujarat over the past 50 years.

He attributed the seizures to a two-year-old amendment to the Fisheries Act that gave maritime police the authority to prosecute illegal offshore activities. “Our cops have for the first time left the coast and entered the water. You are all aware of the amount of narcotics captured by the ATS and other organisations.

The Gujarat police and other agencies were able to seize this quantity of illegal substances in a single year, which represents a significant accomplishment, “Jajadiya stated at the Rashtriya Raksha University’s “Round Table on Nuances of Coastal Security in Gujarat” (RRU).

The purpose of the programme was to explore operational challenges in coastal marine police service, inter-agency collaboration, capacity building initiatives, funding limits, infrastructure limitations, and practical solutions, according to an official announcement.

He also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ordering the hoisting of the national flag on 20 uninhabited islands off the coast of Gujarat, without mentioning the Bet Dwarka islands or the demolition campaign against illegal buildings. “You are all aware that unauthorised development was occurring on the coast…nothing has occurred for decades… On Republic Day, January 26, the marine police, BSF, and Coast Guard raised the flag for the first time on twenty deserted islands. The Prime Minister gave us this instruction,” he asserted.

Jajadiya also emphasised the necessity for RRU to raise port operators’ knowledge of coastal security. “While the marine police and other security agencies are aware of the threat, other stakeholders, particularly port users and port operators, are unaware of coastal security because they are unaware of it. They have been raised on a diet of commerce facilitation and are completely unaware of the security dangers,” he said this while describing a successful “mock attack” in Bedi.

According to Jajadiya, the maritime coastal security unit established in Gujarat in 2006 was “the country’s first marine task force.” After being granted the authority to prosecute illegal actions on land, he stated that approximately fifty offenders are arrested annually.