Jaipur, May 28 : The Sri Ganganagar district police have sent a proposal to the Rajasthan government to provide them with anti-drone guns for checking drug smuggling attempts from Pakistan in the border areas.

Sri Ganganagar Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Yadav said this while speaking to IANS. He said that drug peddlers are trying to make Rajasthan their next destination after Punjab. However, they have been unable to do so to date.

'We have been using anti-drone techniques with the support of BSF in some places which has been successful in bringing down drones carrying drugs. Hence, have written to the state government to provide this equipment in more numbers,' he added

Officials, meanwhile, confirmed that Bikaner and Sri Ganganagar have become easy routes for Pakistan smugglers and Punjab drug mafias to push in drugs.

BSF Director General Nitin Agrawal during his recent Jaisalmer tour confirmed that an anti-drone system will be set up in the entire western border, including areas in Punjab and Rajasthan, adjoining Pakistan. These will be installed on borders to track drones coming beyond borders and to bring them down.

Officials confirmed to IANS that drug traffickers have now made Rajasthan border districts their next target after Punjab. According to the local police, the drug menace in Sri Ganganagar near the India-Pak border has increased in the last decade, mainly due to its smuggling through the Pakistan border. For some years, the surveillance of security forces at the Punjab border has increased, so the smugglers have now been targeting the Sri Ganganagar region to push drugs into India by drones.

According to the Sri Ganganagar police, more than Rs 100 crore of drugs was seized in multiple operations in 2023.

SP Gaurav Yadav said a lot of drug consignments are dropped from drones sent from the Pakistan border. 'The BSF has intercepted heroin packages worth hundreds of crores that were dropped at the border. Our investigation says that 100 per cent of these packages are for Punjab. The Punjab-Pakistan border area has become very strict recently, so smugglers have started dropping packages at Sri Ganganagar which is adjacent to Punjab. Their modus operandi is to send a man from Punjab to collect the dropped packages. The customers of such consignments are in Punjab," he added.

SP Yadav confirmed that 'chitta (heroin') consumers have increased in Rajasthan. He further confirmed that local criminals are now trying to spread this drug menace in the border areas of the state. After Punjab, they are trying to make Rajasthan their next destination, said SP.

It needs to be mentioned here that an illegal building of a drug peddler was demolished in Sri Ganganagar on Monday.

SP Gaurav Yadav stated that the district administration and police were collaborating on 'Operation Seema Sankalp' following directives from police headquarters. The objective of the operation is to eradicate drugs from Sri Ganganagar district and save youth from drug abuse

/IANS