With not many coming forward, Panchkula Police sets new deadline for online registration of arms licence

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At present, only 1,083 people have gone in for online registration. Most of them are those whose licences are due for renewal soon. “People whose arms licences are due for renewal next year want to avoid visiting the police branch till next year. Only those are coming whose licences are slated for renewal this year,” said the police officer.

While no exact figures are available about how many more arms licence-holders in Panchkula remain to be registered online, officials estimate that they could be more than double the number who have got online registration.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has directed all arms licence-holders to submit their details to the licence branch of the police for online registration, and procure a Unique Identification Number (UIN). It has asked the states to complete the process before October 1.

SP, State Vigilance Bureau, Hamid Akhtar, who was until recently Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police, maintains that the online registration will help both the police and the licence-holders.

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“If a cop or anyone questions the possession of a weapon, then the licence-holder can easily show his/her UIN, as evidence of having a valid arms licence,” Akhtar said. “Moreover, the process will be easy, as when they visit the branch for renewal of licence, all the details will be available online, and we will not have to sift through various files.”

According to the police, the number of people with arms licences is fewer in Panchkula than in adjoining Chandigarh and Mohali, where keeping a weapon is considered to be a status symbol. “One keeps firearms either in case of a threat, or as a status symbol. Most of the cases reported in Panchkula are those of burglaries and thefts; here people do not see a solution in a weapon.
Besides, the culture of keeping weapon as a status symbol is not as prevalent in Panchkula, as in any other part of Punjab,” said Commissioner of Police (Ambala-Panchkula) O P Singh.

Personal weapons do not find much favour with the locals, as out of the total number of those who have registered themselves online, only 163 have applied for new licences.

Going by the online data available so far, gun owners in Panchkula belong to two broad categories: armed forces personnel or people living in hilly areas.

“More than 50 per cent of them are those serving in the Indian Army, as Chandimandir Military Station is also situated in Panchkula. Then, there are residents of hilly areas, including Morni, and Pinjore who keep double-barreled rifles at homes, fearing attack by wild animals. People in urban areas usually prefer pistols,” Akhtar said.

Among women, Akhtar said, there are many widows to whom licences were transferred as part of a heirloom policy. There are only 28 women among those who have registered their licences online.