In UP, guns for businessmen

Law and order problem is threatening to hit Uttar Pradesh where it hurts the most. Afraid that the July murder of a Kanpur-based cold storag...

Law and order problem is threatening to hit Uttar Pradesh where it hurts the most. Afraid that the July murder of a Kanpur-based cold storage owner may trigger an exodus among industrialists—many have already shifted base to Uttaranchal to avail of its excise duty exemptions—Lucknow District Magistrate Aradhana Shukla on Tuesday directed that businessmen seeking gun licences in the capital be granted the same at the earliest.

Industrialists won’t have to go through long queues or tiresome procedures, which currently all gun licence applicants face in the state. Their applications will be processed faster, with Shukla deputing Lucknow SSP Kamal Saksena to handle these and do the necessary background checks personally.

Apart from Saksena, the District Magistrate also issued a directive to city magistrate R.K. Pandey to put applications by industrialists on the fast track.

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Currently, almost 30 prominent Lucknow industrialists are in the waiting list for gun licences. They have been waiting for almost a year now, despite their pleas that they face extortion threats.

However, the murder of Ashok Sabarwal has given the appeals a fresh urgency. ‘‘City-based industrialists pressed the alarm buttons when Sabarwal, a prominent cold-storage owner of Kanpur, was killed. He had been receiving extortion calls for long,’’ says Amit Gupta, Chairman of the Lucknow Chapter of Indian Industries Association (IIA). Sabarwal was also the vice-president of IIA’s Kanpur chapter and the murder remains unsolved.

According to Gupta, ‘‘The situation has worsened in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s regime as the political-criminal nexus is more pronounced than ever. Hence the growing demand for gun licences in Lucknow as well. I myself keep a gun at all times.’’

In Saharanpur district, industrialists have pooled in funds to start a ‘Mobile Safety Van’, that they use to commute outside their factories and homes. ‘‘The 80-odd members of IIA’s Saharanpur chapter purchased this van and SSP Saharanpur provided us two armed police guards for the vehicle along with a police siren,’’ says Praveen Sadana, IIA’s state vice-president.

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Sadana adds that first they too turned to gun licences, but these didn’t prove enough. ‘‘Most of the industrialists in Saharanpur have applied for a gun licence and 20 have been granted the same. The threat was real as there were repeated incidents of businessmen being looted of cash on way to banks or while going back home at night. The District Magistrate and SSP both pleaded helplessness. Hence the Mobile Safety Van. We plan to induct three more such vans,’’ Sadana says.

Now Lucknow is thinking along similar lines. ‘‘SSP Kamal Saksena has given us the go-ahead and promised to provide security for vans for industrialists. We plan to buy four vans soon,’’ says Amit Gupta.

The law and order situation is no better in Muzzafarnagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad and Shahjahanpur districts, says IIA’s Honorary Secretary and former chairman of its Meerut chapter Arun Hajela. ‘‘In Meerut, out of the 450-odd members, nearly 200 have applied for gun licences, but red tape ensures that they are still waiting. The matter crops up at each of our meetings when industrialists come from all over the state,’’ he adds.