Poll triggers windfall for Punjab gun stores

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 20

Gun house owners in Punjab are making hay with the Election Commission ordering residents to deposit weapons ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

With the state accounting for one-fifth of the total arms licences held by Indians, Punjab Police are facing a daunting task of making space for safely storing nearly eight lakh weapons.

Many have chosen to deposit their firearms with gun houses for Rs 2,000-2,500 rent fee. Police sources say they have to make extra space at ‘malkhanas’ in around 300 police stations across the state to store these weapons. On an average, each police station will have to store nearly 3,000 firearms.

As per the EC records, around 2.5 lakh weapons of different make have already been deposited. A person can keep three weapons on him on a single arms licence.

India has nearly 21 lakh registered arms licences, of which around five lakh are with Punjab alone. The high number of arms licences had figured prominently in the 2017 Assembly polls when the Congress accused Akalis of issuing licences to their workers without proper verification.

Police sources say they have adequate space for around 1,500 weapons in each police station. “We’ll make some adjustments for more. Police are not entrusted with safe-keeping only. We have to inspect weapons every week,” an official said.

The EC doesn’t have the exact number of weapons deposited with gun stores but they estimate it is high. Sources say an estimated 20 per cent of the total weapons have so far been deposited with gun houses. 

“At Rs 2,500 per weapon, it is a windfall for some gun house owners in big cities,” a police official said.