Maharashtra legilsative assembly okays bill to book drug peddlers under MCOCA
Speaking on the amendment, BJP MLA Sudhir Mungantiwar urged state govt to consider giving the death penalty to drug peddlers and setting up fast-track courts to try them.
He said that hundreds of crores were being made from drugs and that money was used to defeat political opponents.
Highlighting the massive pendency in courts, resulting in drug peddlers and even corrupt officials involved not being punished, Mungantiwar said: "...In lower courts across Maharashtra, there are over 56 lakh pending cases, and in the high court, close to six lakh cases are pending. The entire justice system is not working.
Hundreds of judge posts are vacant, giving rise to pendency...state govt must fill up all judicial posts."
Minister of State for Home (MoS) Yogesh Kadam, who introduced the bill, said drugs like hydro ganja and synthetic drugs were being peddled through networks and stringent laws were needed to crack the peddlers' network. He mentioned that in the last five years, over 10,000 people were booked for possessing commercial quantities, and narcotics worth Rs 11,000 crore seized, of which Rs 10,000 crore were synthetic drugs.
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BJP MLA Ameet Satam said the success of the amendment would only depend on its enforcement by the police.
The bill stated that any illegal act that is continued will now include any persons who "cultivates, produces, manufactures, possesses, sells, purchases, transports, or stores narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances in commercial quantities, as notified under the said Act, in contravention of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, or the rules made thereunder, for the purpose of obtaining pecuniary advantage for himself or any other person, or of obtaining undue pecuniary or other advantage.
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