Published 17:38 IST, November 29th 2019
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh writes to PM Modi asking him to review the new Arms Act proposal
The new proposal comes under Arms Act 1959 regarding restricting the number of firearms a licensee can possess from three to one.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the Union Home Ministry's review of the proposal to reduce the number of firearms permissible on a license. This proposal comes under Arms Act 1959 and Amarinder Singh has urged the Center that even if some states are keen to reduce the number of weapons from the current permissible limit, they should be allowed to do so without being prejudiced to other states. The Punjab CM said that he has also personally raised the issue to PM Narendra Modi when the latter visited Punjab for the opening of the Kartarpur corridor.
The Chief Minister said that the only issue where the Punjab government was not in agreement with the proposed amendments was the strong reservations they had regarding restricting the number of firearms a licensee can possess from three to one. Amarinder Singh stated that being a border state, Punjab has gone through a long period of terrorist violence due to which a large number of people possess more than one firearm along with many farmers, who reside away from the villages in their agricultural lands, farms, possessing firearms for crop protection.
The number of crimes committed using a licensed weapon is also very low as per the Chief Minister's claims. Hence, addressing these facts in his letter, he urged the central government to look into the matter and review it. "These facts could be independently ascertained as they were within the domain of the MHA," he said. In the overall situation of trying to control crimes in Punjab, this licensing and restricting the number of firearms permissible may not be of much help, said the Punjab Chief Minister. He also urged that a large number of people would be inconvenienced because of surrendering of additional weapons and the farming community would also be deprived of weapons meant for crop protection.
Updated 19:11 IST, November 29th 2019