Arms license holders to deposit firearms by March 15

Daltonganj: Palamu district administration has asked all 1,713 arms license holders to deposit their firearms between March 8 and March 15. Since there is no licensed gun shop in Palamu, arms holders have been told to deposit the arms at their local police stations.
Deputy commissioner Palamu Shantanu Kumar Agrahari, who is also the district arms magistrate under Arms Act, issued the order on March 5. The arms will be given back to the licensees only after the end of the Lok Sabha election.

A contractor in Palamu, who did not wish to be named, said, “The administration gave me the license to have weapons so that I can protect myself and my team. We are part of a number of projects both in Palamu and elsewhere. We will become sitting ducks for miscreants once we deposit our firearms. I will not venture anywhere near the construction sites in troubled areas without the arms.” The contractor said he will request district officials to take his security concerns into consideration and treat his case as a special one.

However, the administration has warned that if license holders do not hand over firearms, then their licenses will be cancelled.

Palamu had 6,403 arms licenses in 2016. However, around 4,700 licenses were cancelled after digital scrutiny. This brought down the tally of arms license holders to only 1,713.