Administration of Assam Rifles

Administration of Assam Rifles

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Various Security Forces and Agencies and their Mandate.

In news

• Recently, the Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to take a decision on the issue of bringing Assam Rifles out of the dual control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
• The administrative control of the Assam Rifles is with the MHA. 
• Its operational control rests with the MoD.

• This duality of control leads to problems of coordination.

Key takeaways of the High Court’s Direction

• The issue has been pending for nearly three years.
• The Centre should resolve it within 12 weeks with cooperation from all the stakeholders.
• The matter involves servicemen/ex-servicemen and others whose interests are paramount as proclaimed from various platforms of the Government

Important value additions

Assam Rifles

• Assam Rifles is a Central Paramilitary Force under the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).
• It came into being in 1835, as a militia called the ‘Cachar Levy’.
• Initial Objective: To primarily protect British Tea estates and their settlements against tribal raids.
• In November 2019, MHA proposed to merge it with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

• ITBP is a specialized mountain force, raised in October 1962.
• It is deployed on border guarding duties from Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh covering 3,488 km of Indo-China Border.