Assam to set up Anti Narcotics Task Force within police: Himanta

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced a new Anti Narcotics Task Force within Assam Police to tackle drug trafficking. The unit will focus on legal and financial networks, while the state aims to raise its conviction rate in chargesheeted cases to 35 per cent

Dergaon (Assam): A new unit, ‘Anti Narcotics Task Force’, will be raised within Assam Police to dedicatedly deal with the drug menace, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday. Addressing a press meet after the conclusion of the two-day SSP conference here, he also said that Assam aims to achieve a conviction rate of 35 per cent within this year in chargesheet cases, up from the current 29.3 per cent.

“We will have a new unit called Anti Narcotics Task Force to deal with the drug menace. The Centre had also suggested it,” Sarma said. There will be several verticals within this force, like legal, financial etc, and it will look into matters such as ensuring that accused persons do not get bail easily and breaking down the financial network of drug cartels, he added. “This force will work on strongly implementing the NDPS Act. We hope to raise this unit within Assam Police in the next one month,” Sarma said.

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The CM also said that the conviction rate of FIRs in which chargesheets are filed has gone up to 29.3 per cent at present from around seven per cent in 2020. “We are not targeting to achieve a 35 per cent conviction rate within this year,” he added.