The high-powered National Narcotics Control Board (NNCB) at a meeting yesterday at the conference room of the home ministry also suggested amendment to the Narcotics Control Act to ease pressure on the sessions court which is tasked with dealing the drug cases at present.

Presiding over the meeting, State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar said problems in the existing law are resulting in huge case-logging, adding that 30,000 cases are at present awaiting disposal in Dhaka alone.

"It has become impossible for the sessions court to dispose of the huge number of cases filed every day," Babar said.

As the huge amount of drugs cases is slowing down the pace of trial, the NNCB suggested that from now on the magistrate's courts deal with the cases involving minor drug-related offences.

The draft amendment to the Narcotics Control Act will be discussed at the next meeting of the NNCB.

The meeting asked the DNC to gear up anti-drugs operations across the country, especially in the border regions.

"We have information that there are 21 phensidyl factories in Indian territory near Bangladesh borders. We have ordered to tighten security at the border areas to stop smuggling of phensidyl," Babar said.

The government has asked the police, the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and the Coast Guard to assist the DNC in their operations at the borders with India and Myanmar.

The meeting proposed providing firearms to the DNC officials about which the home ministry will take decision after scrutiny. There was also a proposal for providing the DNC officials with cell phones.

The meeting also formed committees at three levels--17-member upazila committees led by Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNO), 23-member district committees led by deputy commissioners (DC), and a 14-member national committee led by the home secretary--for controlling and raising awareness about narcotics.

The government will also set up billboards at bus and launch terminals and railway stations to raise awareness.

Asked to comment on a recent US State Department report that said there are "unconfirmed reports" that opium and cannabis are cultivated along the border with Myanmar and cannabis in the southern delta region, Babar said, "This is not true."

The meeting was also attended by Information Minister M Shamsul Islam, Social Welfare Minister Ali Ahsan Mojaheed, Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan, State Minister for Planning Maj Gen (retd) Anwarul Kabir Talukder, DNC Director General Kamaluddin Ahmed, secretaries for home and law Safar Raj Hossain and Alauddin Sarder.