CHANDIGARH: With its porous border and unfenced stretches beckoning terrorists and rising militancy threat from the neighbouring country, the Punjab Police has kick-started the process to strengthen its defence by purchasing arms and ammunition worth Rs 39 crore.
The purchased goodies—aimed at upgrading police operations and infrastructure—include bullet-proof vehicles, jackets, patkas (headgear), Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), Mine Protected Vehicles (MPVs), bullet proof tractors, UAVs, night vision glasses and thermal imaging devices.
According to sources, the priciest-most weaponry being bought by the state police include two MPVs worth Rs 1 crore each from an ordnance factory in Jabalpur. While one of them is expected to get delivered within the next six months, the other one will take a year’s time. It is expected to be stationed in one of the border areas of the state. Another priced possession the cops would soon boast of is 11 APVs worth `60 lakh each.
Besides these, the state police had recently been delivered 18 bullet proof Mahindra Scorpios worth Rs 32 lakh each. The state police have also placed an order of 24 bullet proof tractors costing Rs 12 lakh each. Of these, 12 have been delivered. These are to be used during anti-terror operations in fields where other vehicles cannot go.
Other items in the police’s shopping list include 867 bullet proof jackets, 500 bullet proof patkas, and 20 night vision glasses costing Rs 4 lakh each, three UAVs each for Rs 9.50 lakh, and 34 thermal imaging devices worth Rs 3.82 lakh.
Sources claimed that this is for the first time the law and order wing of the state police has bought such equipment directly keeping the provisioning wing, which makes such purchases, out of it.