The 17^th meeting of the District Level Committee of Leh District under Narco Coordination Center (NCORD) Mechanism was conducted under the chairmanship of District Magistrate, Leh, Santosh Sukhadeve on June 21 at DC Office, Leh.

The meeting was convened to discuss the agenda points which included information about trends of drug trafficking, promoting anti-drug abuse awareness, assessing the requirements for drug detection and supervision of drug de-addiction and rehabilitation center.

SSP, Leh, Shruti Arora informed the committee about the cases registered under NDPS Act since the last meeting and how the onset of tourist season and the reopening of roads leads to an increase in the cases.

Further, the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) team highlighted that they have conducted the drug abuse awareness program in 16 schools and are also releasing a podcast on their youtube channel with a drug de-addiction specialist doctor from SNM Hospital to increase awareness among the locals.

The District Magistrate, Santosh Sukhadeve instructed the representative from NCB Jammu to provide the drug detection kits at the earliest. He also added that the drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centre should be fully operational as soon as possible.

Additionally, he informed the committee that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has selected Leh district as one of the ‘Best Performing District’ in the area of successful implementation of joint action plan on prevention of drugs and substance abuse.

The meeting was attended by Assistant Director, ITBF, Leh; Psychiatrist, SNM Hospital, Dr Padma Angmo and other concerned officials.