The Role of the Assam Rifles, The Latest Empowered Department and Other Empowered Departments / Agencies under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 in Containing the Drug Menace in the North East India: An Analysis
North East India comprises the eight states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. This region accounts for 7.6 percent of India’s land mass and 3.6 percent of India’s total population. The countries that border the North East Indian states, in alphabetical order, are Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Nepal. The article takes the esteemed readers through the trends and the issues that are plaguing the North East India on account of huge and easy availability of drugs which come into the country and role of Empowered Departments, especially the Assam Rifles, in containing the illicit drug trafficking and the cases booked by them. The role of the Empowered Department in destroying the illicit cultivation of cannabis and opium poppy merits being appreciated.