Four Haryana districts account for lion’s share of gun licences

The details were tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday in response to a question asked by Neeraj Sharma, Congress MLA from Faridabad (NIT), on the last day of the winter session.

Sharma asked the home minister to give details of a) the time since when the arms licences are being made online by the government; b) the number of applications for arms licences received by the government since the process of making online arm licenses has been started, together with the number of arms licences made till November, 30, 2023; and c) the number of new arms licences that have been issued and rejected together, with the reasons of issuance and rejection of arms licence, as well as the district-wise and caste-wise details thereof.

Home Minister Anil Vij’s reply stated that 303 applications were received online from Ambala, out of which arms licences were issued in 19 cases; 15 arms licences issued out of 285 applications in Bhiwani; eight out of 134 in Charkhi Dadri; 69 out of 314 in Faridabad; 10 out of 616 in Fatehabad; 79 out of 755 in Gurugram; 12 out of 638 in Hisar; 11 out of 469 in Jind; 106 out of 909 in Jhajjar; 9 out of 478 in Karnal; 15 out of 720 in Kaithal; 14 out of 364 in Kurukshetra; 18 out of 217 in Mahendragarh; 42 out of 321 in Nuh; 44 out of 254 in Panchkula; 74 out of 1,219 in Panipat; 14 out of 672 in Palwal; 81 out of 1,279 in Rohtak; eight out of 214 in Rewari; 27 out of 2270 in Sonipat; 22 out of 580 in Sirsa and 10 out of 405 in Yamunanagar.

The arms licence applications are being decided on the basis of police inquiry reports and recommendations under the Arms Act 1959 and the Arms Rules 2016 as well as guidelines issued by the central and state governments, the reply added.

Although Sharma also asked for caste-wise details of people who were issued arms licences, the government replied that “no provision has been made in the Saral Portal regarding the issue of arms licence on the basis of caste”.