New Delhi, August 10: In order to check smuggling of narcotics, there has been over 25-fold increase in monetary reward to informers and government officers for giving tip off leading to seizure of opium, while for cocaine and heroin it would be six times more. The advance rewards given on seizure of narcotic drugs have been discontinued by the government.
For opium, informers and officers can get reward of up to Rs 6,000 per kilogram, which is 25 times more than the earlier limit of Rs 220 per kilogram. There has been six-fold increase in reward for cocaine and heroin. The reward on seizure of cocaine has been increased to Rs 2.4 lakh from Rs 40,000 and for helping in seizure of one kilogram of heroin, the reward would be Rs 1.2 lakh as against Rs 20,000 given earlier, as per the new ‘guidelines for grant of reward to informers and government servants, 2015’ issued by the finance ministry.
For seizure of ganja, the reward would be Rs 600. Earlier, the limit was Rs 80 per kg. For hashish also, the reward has been increased to Rs 2,000 per kg from Rs 400, it said. Government servants working in other departments or agencies like police, BSF and Coast Guard, etc, may also be considered for sanction of reward in respect of cases of seizures of contraband goods. However, only officers of these departments who hold rank equivalent to the additional commissioner of Customs and Central Excise or lower level officials, will be considered eligible for rewards. Earlier, the officers up to the level of deputy commissioner were being considered for the reward. For giving inputs leading to seizure of Mandrax tablets, the reward has been increased to Rs 2,000 per kilogram from Rs 500.
Witness act may cover whistleblowers, RTI activists
Mumbai: Maharashtra government was considering inclusion of whistleblowers and RTI activists in the proposed Witness Protection Act, it told the Bombay high court Monday. While a policy to provide police protection to witnesses in sensitive cases was already in place, a legislation would be framed soon, additional government pleader Nitin Deshpande told the division bench of justices AS Oka and Revati Mohite-Dere. Apart from the witnesses, the government was considering inclusion of RTI activists and whistleblowers in the Act, he said. PTI