CUTTACK: Even as Cuttack district administration and police have stepped up efforts to bring arm licence holders under the National Database on Arms Licences (NDAL), missing gun holders have posed a big problem for them.
Verification of licencees for speeding up NDAL registration process in the district has thrown up 37 arms holders missing from the addresses. Of 919 arms holders in Cuttack, 383 have not renewed their licences. And 37 of them have become untraceable.
“The missing cases could be due to death or persons shifting from their addresses to some other district or even outside the State. We are now focusing on ascertaining facts of the cases to ensure that there is no misdeed there. All cases will be brought to record irrespective of their status,” SP, Cuttack Rural, Gurudas Kundu said.
The ongoing process of verification has also led to seizure of around 176 guns and weapons due to non-renewal of licence by the holders. Officers at all police stations in the district have been asked to physically inspect the non-renewal cases and take appropriate action, the SP said.
All licences will be digitised and synced with the national database to have a complete information on all persons, types of arms, quantity of arms and ammunition as well as their status. This will help the authorities at the Central, State and district level in real-time monitoring, regular updation as well as checking proliferation of arms.
Under NDAL initiated by the Union Home Ministry, arms licence process would be web-based. Every licence holder would be provided with an applicant ID and smart card with unique identification number (UIN).
The licence holders will have to submit complete details on the status of their licence, weapons registered, ammunition type and quantity with photographs and documents for the UIN and ID card.
The administration has targeted to complete generation of UINs for all licence holders in the district by August 31. Of total 919 licenses, around 536 have already applied for renewal and 429 have been renewed. Around 383 arms holders have not applied for renewal, who would be brought in soon, Collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra said.
The NDAL will take over all process from renewal, inter-district registration, addition or deletion of arms, sale and transfer and expansion of arms purview from October 31 this year. The licence holders who do not get the UIN within the stipulated time will have their licences cancelled, Mishra said.