Indians For Guns

No more flaunting of multiple arms by Bihar ‘dons’; just one license valid from April 1
Updated: Mar 22, 2017 18:50 IST
Avinash Kumar
Hindustan Times, Patna

Bihar’s high and mighty, for long been given to flaunting fancy weapons, sometimes as a status symbol and at other times as an intimidation tactic, will soon experience a severe curb in such display of their power and sway..

For, kicking in on April 1 is the new arms license issuance system (ALIS), under the union home ministry’s national database of arms licences (NDAL) project. It clearly lays down that any individual can hold just one arms license, instead of multiple licenses, as being held at present by held by many ‘bahubalis’ in Bihar at present.

This effectively means any Bihar ‘bahubali’ (muscle-endowed) criminal-politician or a politician or bureaucrat, will be able to wear just one weapon on a single arms license!

While uploading arms licenses data for NDAL, the Bihar government has found that thousands of people, including politicians, musclemen and contractors, hold multiple arms licences, even as thousands of fresh applications for issuance of arms licences remain pending with different district magistrates.

“In many cases, people appear to have got multiple licenses issued just to flaunt weapons as a status symbol. In some cases, one person was found to hold up to three arms licences. Multiple licenses in the name of one individual won’t be valid, come April 1”, said an official of the home department.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal told HT that in Patna alone, from where around 8,000 entries have been made in NDAL, around 750 persons were found to be holding multiple arms licences.

The Bihar government, like other state governments, has to upload all data related to arms licences to NDAL software latest by March 31. Any arms license whose data is not uploaded by that date will be rendered invalid with effect from April 1.

So far, in eight districts of Bihar, including Begusarai, Bhagalpur, Jehanabad, Jamui, Munger, Nalanda and Patna, the process of data entry of arms licences has not been completed, partly owing to ambiguity over what was to be done with multiple arms licences issued in the past.

Now, Bihar’s home department has made it clear through its letter to all the district magistrates that an individual can have just one arms license in his/her name.

With the March 31 deadline close to expiry, principal secretary, home, Amir Subhani has written to DMs of all 38 districts of Bihar to complete the exercise on a priority basis. It was during a review of what was delaying the data uploading exercise, that the authorities stumbled upon incidence of people having multiple arms licences.

Reached for a reaction, Darbhanga DM Chandra Shekhar Singh confirmed that under the new NDAL rules, an individual would be eligible for only one arms license.

As such, several DMs have directed the holders of multiple arms licenses to deposit them in the offices of the district arms magistrates with a request letter for their consolidation/merger into a single license and to get the endorsement of their firearms on the new license, under his/her unique identity number (UIN) under NDAL.

An arms magistrate of a central Bihar district told HT that a license holder should deposit the arms license(s) and obtain a receipt by March 31, without fail. “After this deadline expires, any license not uploaded under NDAL or submitted to the authorities was liable to be cancelled”, he said.

As such, several DMs have directed the holders of multiple arms licenses to deposit them in the offices of the district arms magistrates with a request letter for their consolidation/merger into a single license and to get the endorsement of their firearms on the new license, under his/her unique identity number (UIN) under NDAL.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agarwal told HT that in Patna alone, from where around 8,000 entries have been made in NDAL, around 750 persons were found to be holding multiple arms licences.

Bihar set to miss arms licenses database deadline
Updated: Mar 15, 2017 19:45 IST
Avinash Kumar
Hindustan Times, Patna

The Bihar authorities appear set to miss the March 31, 2017, twice extended, deadline for digitisation of arms licenses in the state, under the National Database of Arms Licenses (NDAL) project.

Thanks to factors, such as hiccups in the flow of the required information from the licensees’ end, the process of uploading arms licenses data in an electronic format developed for the purpose by the National Informatics Centre, has failed to make the desired progress.

Despite extension of deadline for completion of the process twice – from September 30, 2015 to March 31, 2016 and then to March 31, 2017, the Bihar home department looks in no position to furnish all information on arms, their make, their sellers and their owners.

According to reports available here, out of 38 districts in Bihar,14 districts have not even started uploading arms license data under the project.

Under the project, after the details of arms license are entered, a unique identification number is assigned to the license holder, without which no arms license shall be considered as valid with effect from April 1, 2017.

In view of the approaching revised deadline for digitalization, the state home department has organized video conference on Thursday (March 16) with arms magistrates in each district to address the issue.

A directive has also been issued to all district magistrates to speed up the process.

In addition to the issuance of a unique identification number and digitalization of database, stringent regulations have been put in place for issuance and renewal of arms licenses across the country, as part of an initiative to curb terrorist activities.

The database contains information such as the name and address of the license holder, the type of weapon and the license number. Arms license holders in all districts were notified about the regulation through the respective offices.

Despite persistent queries from HT, no official was willing to say whether or not the March 31 deadline for uploading the arms licenses data would be met.

nitroex700 wrote:UP & Bihar, and of late West Bengal, have become a hub of criminal activities. Muscle power has virtually replaced state power. Cancellation of multiple arms licenses of the 'Bahubalis' is a good step in this direction. In fact people with criminal cases should have all their licenses cancelled but somehow the reverse generally happens in these states.

mundaire wrote:It is merely a tool designed to curb/ prevent armed rebellion against the state.

indiaone wrote:In one license a individual can hold upto three fire arms, is that the correct postion? Goodboy_mentor may please enlighten us on this point.