The provisions relating to grant of arms licences have been reviewed by the Central and State Government to curb proliferation of arms, an official spokesman of the Haryana Government said here on Monday.
He said that applications for arms licences for acquisition of Prohibited Bore (PB) weapons were considered by the Central Government in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and applications for arms licences for acquisition of Non Prohibited Bore (NPB) weapons were considered by the State Government or the District Magistrate concerned.
He added that according to a communication received from the Ministry of Home Affairs, applications for grant of PB weapons would henceforth be considered from those persons who faced grave and imminent threat to their lives.
The `threat’ could be by mere reason of their being residents of a geographical area where terrorists were most active and/or they were held to be prime `targets’ in the eyes of terrorists and/or were known to be inimical to the aims and objects of the terrorists and as such faced danger to their lives.
This would also apply to those government officials who by virtue of the office occupied by them and/or the nature of duties performed by them and/or in due discharge of their official duty had made themselves targets in the eyes of terrorists and were vulnerable to terrorist attack.
The spokesman further said applications would also be considered from those MPs and MLAs or private persons who by virtue of having been closely and/or actively associated with anti-terrorist programmes and policies of the government or by mere reason of their holding views, political or otherwise, not to the liking of the terrorists, had rendered themselves open to attack by the terrorists.
The family members/kith and kin of those who by the very nature of their duties or performance (past or present) or positions occupied in the government (past or present) or even otherwise for known/unknown reasons had been rendered vulnerable and had come to be regarded by the terrorists as fit targets for elimination would also be considered for grant for PB weapons.
Accordingly, applications for grant of PB weapons from these categories of persons would be forwarded to MHA (Arms Section) along with recommendations of the District Magistrate concerned, recommendations of the state government and police verification, he added.
The spokesman further said that applications for grant of NPB arms licences would be considered from persons who faced or perceived grave and imminent threat to their lives, for which the licencing authority would obtain an assessment of the threat from the police.
No licence would be granted without police verification, he added. The police would be asked to send the report within 45 days positively failing which the police officials concerned may be liable for action.
