India under US narcotics scanner

The United States has included India in the list of countries producing and smuggling narcotics, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

While New Delhi has taken up the matter with Washington, the US government has indicated that India's inclusion in the Majors List was primarily due to large scale diversion of licit opium production into the illicit market, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a written reply.

"The US has requested information over a period of time that diversion from licit production has been reduced to a modest problem", he said.

Mukherjee said while India has been included in the Majors List, there was no year in which it was listed as a country that failed demonstrably to adhere to international counter-narcotics agreements or take counter-narcotic measures.