Nagaland Director General of Police, Rupin Sharma, IPS on Wednesday shared on Twitter a fragment of the ‘Guidelines for grant of rewards to be paid to the officers, informers and other persons, 2017’ in what can be understood as a bid to encourage people to help the law enforcing agencies nab drug traffickers and dealers and be rewarded for the noble deed.
Knowledge on the reward scheme will perhaps also encourage individuals and unions to report to appropriate authorities when they receive information about illegal activities rather than taking the law in own hands which is usually dangerous.
The reward guideline was issued by the Government of India on 10 October 2017 to regulate the grant and payment of reward to informers and government officers.
As per this policy, an officer is eligible for Rs. 20,00,000/- reward during his entire career and Rs. 50,000/- at a time. However, a maximum reward of Rs. 2,00,000/- may also be given to an individual in exceptional cases by the Apex Central Rewards Committee. Up to 50% of the total admissible reward amount can be given at pre-trial stage if the test report from chemical lab turns positive.
The new reward guideline has not only included new drugs/ psychotropic substances in the revised reward policy but also increased the rate of reward of the seized drug. The revised reward scheme has increased the quantum of reward as per the following tables (I & II):-
While formulating the Reward Guidelines, 2017, the Government of India has also laid down the following principles:-
As per the new guidelines, the reward scheme will be made applicable to –
1. Informers whose information leads to seizures of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, Controlled substances, forfeiture of illegally acquired property under chapter V A of NDPS Act and contravention of rules made there under, which is booked by any Central and State agencies.
2. Officers of Central / State / UTs Government empowered under the provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985 who make seizures, successful investigation/prosecution and conduct post investigation work in respect of contravention of provisions of NDPS Act, 1985.
3. Officials of other Central / State / UTs Government who assisted in detecting the contravention of the provisions of the NDPS Act, 1985, Rules or order made there under.
As per the policy, the reward sanctioning authority should also consider the factors while granting reward to informers, like accuracy of the information, degree of risk involved, extent and nature of the help rendered by the informer and whether the information also gave clues of the person involved in the drug trafficking racket.
Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs is the coordinating agency to process the reward proposal of other Central and State agencies working in the field of drug interdiction.
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