Mumbai, Nov 24 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday exhorted customs officials at the country's largest container port JNPT to ensure adequate publicity for the destruction of narcotics.<br> The finance minister, who was on a visit to the state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), also urged customs officials to aim for 'zero daily assessment pendency' and faster release of cargo, an official statement said.<br> The comments come weeks after the confiscation of a very large quantity of narcotics substances at JNPT's biggest competitor, the Adanis-run Mundra Port, and the subsequent reports of the port in Gujarat banning all shipments from Iran. <br> "She said adequate publicity should be given for destruction of narcotics," the official statement quoted the finance minister as saying.<br> "Sitharaman also asked the officers to speed up disposal of hazardous goods and desired that quasi-judicial process, if any, be carried out in a manner to achieve disposal within three months of import," the statement added.<br> Sitharaman travelled to the port, located off the Mumbai harbour to the east, in a ferry from South Mumbai's Gateway of India and was given an overview of the activities at the port by customs officials and chaired a meeting later.<br> She undertook a detailed survey of infrastructure at the vessel, cargo and land-side stacking and transport operations, and also noted the revenue, security and facilitation roles performed by the Customs officers.<br> The minister also performed the ground breaking ceremony (bhoomi pujan) for setting up of a Customs Examination Facility at JNPT's Centralized Parking Plaza. The facility will obviate the need to move containers to a separate location that are selected for examination on the basis of risk.<br> The visiting minister was accompanied by revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj and CBIC chairman M Ajith Kumar. PTI AA<br>MR MR