Reward guidelines for informers revamped

New Delhi: The home ministry has revised the reward guidelines for informers and government officials in cases of drug trafficking racket.

According to the new policy an officer would be eligible for Rs 20,00,000 reward during his entire career and Rs 50,000 at a given time. However a maximum reward of Rs 2,00,000 may also be given to an individual in exceptional cases by the Apex Central Rewards Committee.

As per the new policy reward would not be granted as a matter of routine and criteria for grant of reward to informers have been prescribed.

Ministry officials said that up to 50 per cent of the total reward amount can be sanctioned at the pre-trial stage itself provided the test report of seized narcotic is found to be positive by the chemical laboratory.

In terms of granting reward to the informers the reward sanctioning authority will have to consider important factors like accuracy of the information, degree of risk involved, extent and nature of the help rendered by the informer and whether the information also gave clues of the person involved in the drug trafficking racket.

The Narcotics Control Bureau, which functions under the administrative control of the home ministry has been made the nodal agency to process the reward proposal of other Central and state agencies working in the field of narcotic seizures.