Assam Rifles empowered with  Police Powers To Fight Drug Menace From Myanmar

• Image Credit: Internet

• Feb 1, 2022 | Sourav Boruah

Digital Desk: The center on Monday conferred police powers to Assam Rifles to keep a check on the ongoing increase in drug trafficking in the North-Eastern states.

The paramilitary force, Assam Rifles has been given the special additional police powers to fight the ongoing drug menace in the region at wartime speed.

The paramilitary force has been assigned to counter drug trafficking in the “Golden Triangle”, the area on the Myanmar border which is one of the largest producers of narcotics drugs in the world.

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Now the Indian government has extended to the Assam Rifles two provisions of the country's Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

Section 42 of the NDPS Act authorizes the empowered officers of this force now to " search the premises, seizure of the drugs, detain any person or arrest the person who has committed the offense without a warrant."

" We are currently working out our procedures on how to implement these new powers that have been vested upon us by the Indian Government", he said in an exclusive interview. "Once implemented, you shall surely see a rise in our success on this front."

Lt Gen Nair said that the seizures of narcotics by his force have risen exponentially since 2019 in the northeastern states bordering Myanmar.