guns and bullets like cheap onions.

The gun house owners in this town, which seems to have become a paradise for gunrunners and getting fake arms licenses, welcome their customers with their arms wide open as was witnessed by this correspondent, who walked inside one such shops on Tuesday afternoon with cash and exited to get bullets like sweets in his hands.

No questions were asked, no identity was disclosed, no licence for firearm was asked to be shown-all it took was a monetary negotiation that finally settled down for Rs 150 for per cartridge of .32 bore.

As per the directions of the Union ministry of home affairs, which are blatantly being violated by the owners of arms and ammunition shops, an arms dealer has to maintain a record of the ammunition sold by classifying the date of use, place where the ammunition was used, numbers of bullets fired and the purpose behind usage of the ammunition.


The guidelines further stated that after getting report from all the arms dealers, district magistrates is to send all such reports to the respective state governments.

But the arms dealers of this town don`t keep a database of the ammunition sold by them and what is more concerning is that bullets of .32 revolvers or .12 bore guns are available in these places for anyone who is ready to shell out a little more than the original price.

Requesting anonymity, an official in the `asla shakha` of the local district magistrate office admitted that the arms dealer have to submit their sales record of ammunition to the concerned District magistrate`s office, but here it never happens.


"If an arm dealer sells any arm or ammunition to the registered licensee outside the state, he has to inform the district magistrate accordingly," he informed.

Several arms dealers in the district were found to be involved in the fake arm licence scam, which had rocked the state government in 2001.

The district was once again in the thick of similar controversy in July 2010 when some government employees and arms dealers were found preparing fake arms licences by forging the signature of the additional district magistrate. And these arms dealers continue with all their unlawful activities under the nose of the law enforcement agencies.