Guwahati, Jan 29: The Assam government has, in a significant step towards forensic-based investigation of crimes and facilitating better policing, appointed 36 scientific assistants in the state directorate of forensic science.
Notably, more than half of the newly appointed professionals are women.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to microblogging site X to state, “In what will be a significant step towards better policing, the Assam government has appointed 36 new scientific assistants in the directorate of forensic science – over half of them being women.”
“As Bharat makes a transition towards forensic-based investigation to ensure a higher conviction rate, the country will require over 90,000 forensic scientists in the coming years,” Sarma said.
The state government had in June last year inked two memorandums of understanding (MoU) with the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, aimed at forging collaboration in the field of forensic sciences, healthcare and diagnostics.
The chief minister had then said that the state government’s understanding with the CDFD would have a far-reaching impact in building a crime-free, secured and healthy society in the state.
Thanking the CDFD for entering into agreement, he further said that the Assam government, in its bid to make the state crime free, has initiated measures to bolster forensic science infrastructure.
Referring to the Guwahati campus of National Forensic Science University in north Guwahati, for which foundation stone was laid by Union home minister Amit Shah, the chief minister said that the campus besides empowering the state in forensic science would also provide training and skill development to the police, judiciary and forensic scientists.
As a part of the MoU on forensic sciences, CDFD would provide DNA profiling training for human identification purposes to the scientific and technical staff of the state directorate of forensic science.
Besides, training and sensitisation programmes would be conducted in areas such as evidence collection, handling and transportation methods, chain of custody, quality control and quality assurance issues, etc.
