A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticised the Punjab Government for allegedly adopting a lenient approach towards drug traffickers and failing to invoke the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act, the state government issued a notification on October 21 delegating preventive detention powers to the Commissioner of Police, IG and officers ranked Additional DGP and above.They can now exercise their discretion in preventive detention of drug smugglers for a specific period of time under the Act. The notification was issued by the Department of Home Affairs and sent to all police commissionerates, police districts and other wings of the Punjab Police, with directions to utilise the powers under this Act in “good spirit”.Earlier, only the Punjab Home Secretary held this authority. The new notification strengthens the state police to act against drug smugglers.During his address, Shah had stated that 929 cases had been registered under the PIT-NDPS Act across the country, while Punjab had not been utilising the powers under this Act and had not registered a single case.However, sources said the state had ordered preventive detention under the PIT-NDPS Act in seven cases till last month.An ADGP-rank officer said earlier permission was required from the Home Secretary, a process that often took months, to execute an arrest warrant. However, under the new notification, arrest warrants can now be executed at the district and police commissionerate level with the consent of an officer ranked IG and above.“This notification will help the police expedite the detention of drug traffickers. Earlier, detention proposals remained pending for months while awaiting the Home Secretary’s approval,” the ADGP said.A senior Punjab Police official pointed out that proposing preventive detention required navigating a lengthy 20-item checklist that was extremely difficult to fulfil. He suggested that the force should issue fresh SOPs with minimal formalities to significantly accelerate the detention process.The PIT-NDPS Act provides for a preventive detention order against any person to prevent him from engaging in the illicit traffic of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. Once the order is issued, any illegally acquired properties of that person, as well as his relatives and associates, can be seized, frozen and forfeited.