Bill to amend MCOCA tabled

The law is being amended as provisions in the existing Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act are insufficient to deal with the menace of commercial drug peddling

Mumbai: The state government on Tuesday tabled a bill in the legislative assembly to amend the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), 1999, bringing drug peddlers dealing with commercial quantities of banned narcotic substances under its ambit.

The law is being amended as provisions in the NDPS Act are insufficient to deal with the menace of commercial drug peddling

The law is being amended as provisions in the existing Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act are insufficient to deal with the menace of commercial drug peddling, said sources in the home department.

“The amendment will enable police to book drug dealers and peddlers under the MCOCA for stricter punishments,” a home department official told HT.

Peddlers handling commercial quantities of drugs are booked under the NDPS Act but are released immediately as there is no separate provision to deal with commercial drug peddling, the officer said.

“The amendment in the MCOCA will allow for strict punishment of commercial drug peddlers,” he said.

A fresh clause among the proposed amendments in the law says that drug peddlers seek to gain pecuniary benefits or undue economic/ other advantages for themselves and others “by cultivating, producing, manufacturing, possessing, selling, purchasing, transporting or storing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances in commercial quantity, as notified in the NDPS Act, in contravention of the said Act or rules framed thereafter.”

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said last week that invoking the MCOCA against drug peddlers would help curb increasing smuggling and drug abuse.