Ferozepur, November 20, 2017: In recent years, the practice of openly carrying a gun has grown in popularity and getting an arm licence has also become a craze among the people as a status symbol without bothering for its pros and cons.
The fresh case in point is the death of an 8-year-old boy Bikramjeet Singh Matharu in celebratory firing in Kotkapura. Earlier also a dancer was killed on the stage in firing from the dancing-floor at a marriage party in Bathinda district.
It has come to light that on an average, around hundred people come to the local Red Cross Society for the purchase of application form for applying for arms licence with the District Magistrate against a donation of ten thousand rupees. The sale of these forms is decreased during the election days when the model code of conduct is announced when even the existing arms licence holders have to deposit their arms with the local police station or with the arms dealers. More than seven hundred applications have been issued up to October end.
In other words, the corpus funds are generated with the sale of application forms, to help the number of needy persons and charitable institutions but procuring the licences by hundreds every month, is not a healthy sign for the society.
Local NGO Diwan Chand said, the holding of the pistol at the public functions has become a fashion despite putting a clear warning at the marriage palaces. The craze for keeping the arms is not a good sign for the security of the common man. Issuing of arms licence should be made stricter with proper verification of its need and it should be issued only after proper training and guidance.
Added here, in 2000, thousands of fake arms licences issued by the local authorities were seized with some of the reaching out to the criminals of the other states and CBI inquiry was marked into the fake arms licence scandal in the district. However, the issuance of arms licence on brittle grounds has not stopped and the accused have not been punished so far when most of the erring officials have retired.
As per the sources, Gurpteet Singh Gopi and his accomplice Ashok Kaur alias Amna Sethi who were arrested in a shootout case at Kohala village in August, having links with terror organizations, had procured arms license on recommendations of a political leader.
Sources further said, in 2015, 53 illegal weapons were recovered by the Ferozepur police along with several forged licences and fake stamps of various DMs. Even during last SAD-BJP regime, a bundle of applications for new arms licences were used to be received in the DC office, carrying the recommendations of the political leaders.
However, the administration has denied any discrepancy after re-verification of the arms licences made during the past six months of the previous regime.