Guwahati, Jan 19 (IANS): The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of the Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) have seized narcotics and contraband items worth around Rs four crore and rescued 103 minor children from being trafficked, in the past one year, officials said on Tuesday.

The Chief Public Relations Officer of the NFR Subhanan Chanda said that the RPF of the railways has also been in the forefront in rescuing the runaway, destitute and trafficked children as 103 minor children were rescued after arresting 14 traffickers during the past one year.

He said that the RPF has been successful in detecting smuggling of contraband goods and various drugs from the railway premises and recovered narcotics and contraband items valued around Rs four crore.

In all 23 persons were arrested on charges of carrying contraband items and various drugs and subsequently handed over to the appropriate authority along with seized materials for legal actions as per law. Chanda said that last week the RPF personnel recovered two unclaimed bags containing Ganja (marijuana), weighing 17 kgs valued at around Rs one lakh from a New Delhi-bound Special Rajdhani Express train between Teliamura-Ambasa section in Tripura.

The NFR, one among the 17 railway zones in India, operates fully and partially in six of the eight northeastern states, excluding Meghalaya and Sikkim, and in seven districts of West Bengal and five districts of north Bihar.