Friday announced setting up of an advisory board to enable detention of

drug smugglers for a year without trial.

He also announced creation of a separate Drug Division under the Health Department to centralize and synergise the de-addiction efforts of the state government and private centres.

The measures are among a series of fresh initiatives announced by the Chief Minister to take the government's fight against drugs to the next level, an official spokesperson said on Friday after a meeting to review the functioning of the Special Task Force (STF) set up to wipe out the menace
of drugs from the state.

Officials posted in the respective police stations, from whose jurisdiction drug seizures are made, will now be held directly accountable, the Chief Minister said at the meeting, which saw a series of directives being issued to strengthen the government's efforts to combat the menace and to facilitate de-addiction and rehabilitation on a bigger scale.

The proposed Advisory Board will be constituted under Prevention of Illicit Traffic (PIT) in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act with the aim of allowing detention of drug smugglers without trial for a year.

It will also allow attachment of properties of proclaimed offenders under the said Act.

The Chief Minister has asked Additional Chief Secretary Home Nirmal Singh Kalsi to work out the modalities in this regard, according to the official spokesperson.

--IANS js/prs