Guns & polls — a tough, emotional parting time for residents

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 9

Punjabis’ love for guns is legendary and so they hate to part ways with these even briefly during elections. These times become nostalgic for “gabrus”, especially when popular Punjabi songs — Inderjit Nikku’s “Desi Gun”, Jimmy Wraich’s “Loaded Gun” and Raja Lalka’s “Pistol” — further aggravate their pain and anguish!

It was a moment of utter despair for 63-year-old Chaman Singh, a resident of Kapurthala, who had come to a gun house in the city opposite Civil Hospital to buy a cover for his pistol. “Weapons are like children to us as they safeguard us in case of any exigency. I do not like the feeling to get separated from it during the election season but have no choice,” said an emotional Singh while putting his pistol in the cover.

“The police do not take care of our weapons as they have hundreds to take care of! So before handing over my pistol to them, I got it serviced and have put it in a proper cover,” said Singh, a retired policeman.

The case was no different for 32-year-old Army officer who had come to deposit his weapon with an arms dealer near Jyoti Chowk.

“Though I am posted in Assam, my weapon was lying at my home in Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar. My father received numerous calls for the past three months from the area police to deposit our weapon. I came on leave and the first thing I am doing is to get it deposited with the dealer,” said the young man.

When asked as to why he had not got it deposited with the police, he said the gun, being a highly expensive one, he always preferred to get it deposited with the arms dealer who is known to the family. He, however, called the exercise a futile, one as he believed that election-related violence incidents generally do not happen with licensed weapons.

Although the depositing process of weapons generally begins after the implementation of the code of conduct, Jalandhar Police Commissioner Arpit Shukla began the process months ago by slowly persuading city residents to deposit their weapons in advance. To further facilitate the licence holders, he also increased the depositing capacity of arms dealers around three to four times than the ones earlier allotted to them.

The commissionerate got around 71 per cent weapons deposited till date. Out of the 7,478 weapons in the commissionerate area , 5,309 weapons were deposited till Monday.

Pallav Nanda of Nanda Gun House said around 75 per cent of his clients had already deposited their arms with him. Also speaking about the measures taken to safeguard the expensive weapons, Singh said a majority of the arms dealers had installed state-of-the-art security apparatus in their strong rooms to prevent any theft.

“From installing body heat sensors to shutter sensors to high-definition CCTV cameras, we have installed many other invisible devises to safeguard the weapons during the election time,” said Gurpreet Singh of Rashtriya Gun House. He also said that even though it was recently that the election code was announced in the state, the city police had already conducted three checks on their premises.

“While two safety checks were conducted by the area police officials, another silent check too was conducted by senior officials in plain clothes recently, “said Singh. He also said that the election season had given the licence holders a time to get their weapons repaired or to get these serviced from arms dealers.

Rural areas see surge in depositing of arms

According to election cell in-charge Paramjit Singh, 66 per cent of the weapons had been deposited till date. Out of the 5,922 licence holders in the area having over 7,658 weapons, 5,116 weapons were deposited with the police until Monday. “We are conducting regular checks with the respective police stations and are expected to complete the process by this week only,” said Singh. 

Police Commissionerate 

• Total licences: 6,163
• Total weapons: 7,478
• Deposit: 5,309

Rural Police 

• Total licences: 5,922
• Total weapons: 7,658
• Deposit: 5,116