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Moga, Applicants of arms licences or its renewal are being allegedly harassed by the authorities concerned and employees of the Suvidha Centre in the city to donate funds for the Red Cross Society and strike a deal with “agents” to get the job done.
Investigations by The Tribune revealed that the Suvidha Centre staff even refuse to sell the form. Sources say the applicants are forced to contact agents. They say even after fulfilling the requirements, the applicants are forced to donate Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 to the Red Cross, apart from the cost of the form, licence fee and centre charges. This practice is going on for the past many years.
When contacted, District Magistrate-cum-Chairman, District Red Cross Society, Dilraj Singh Sandhawalia, admitted collecting donations for the society from applicants seeking arms licences, but refused to comment on the issue of corruption at the Suvidha Centre.
A 65-year-old resident, Manjit Singh, said he applied for the renewal of his arms licence on October 9, 2007, but the Suvidha Centre employees failed to deliver his licence till date just because he refused to pay the bribe. His .12 bore gun is lying dumped in the junkyard of a local gun house. He complained about this issue to the respective district magistrates, but to no avail.
When this correspondent went to the Suvidha Centre to enquire about the procedure, as many as 50 arms licences were found dumped in one of the remote corners of the centre. It was found that the licences had been gathering dust for the past over five years. These were not delivered to the applicants.
It is also learnt that hundreds of weapons are lying unclaimed at various police stations due to the non-renewal or missing of the arms licences.
