In Crackdown On Punjab's 'Gun Culture', Bhagwant Mann-Led Govt Cancels Over 810 Gun Licences

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann-led state government has cancelled the licenses of over 810 arms across the state.

File Photo of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Source : Getty

New Delhi: In a massive crackdown on “Gun Culture” in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann-led state government has cancelled the licenses of about 813 arms across the state. There were 3 lakh 73 thousand 53 arms licenses in Punjab, out of which 813 licenses have now been cancelled. Gurdaspur in Punjab has a maximum number of 40,789 arms licences followed by Bathinda district on the second number, with 29,353 arms licenses.

Patiala district comes in third number with 28,340 arms licenses. Of the 813 arms licenses canceled by the Punjab government, 87 are in Ludhiana Rural, 48 in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, 10 in Gurdaspur, 84 in Faridkot, 199 in Pathankot, 47 in Hoshiarpur, and 6 in Kapurthala. S.A.S. Arms licenses of 235 people in Sangrur, 16 in Sangrur, 27 in Amritsar commissionerate, 11 in Jalandhar commissionerate, and in many other districts have been cancelled.    

Last year in November, the Punjab government had taken a big action to target the 'gun culture' in Punjab. About 900 arms licenses were canceled in 9 days and more than 300 arms licenses were suspended and show cause notices were issued to them. The people whose licenses were cancelled last year were asked to state reasons for the need for weapons. 

Out of the 900 arms licenses that were cancelled, the maximum number of them was 391 in the Jalandhar district. In Ropar 146, Nawanshahar 266, Mohali 32, Tarn Taran's 19, Kaputhala  17, Ferozepur 25, and Pathankot 1 licenses were cancelled. In November 2022, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav ordered a mandatory inspection of the shops, premises, and stocks of all the gun houses on a quarterly basis across the state.