UPSC Articles
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.
