148 arms licence holders not appearing for dope test for renewal

As many as 148 arms licence holders in the district were asked to retake the dope test required for renewal, failing which, their licence could be cancelled. Recommendation for the same has already landed with the Ludhiana Commissioner of Police, Kuldeep Singh Chahal.

Former Civil Surgeon, Dr Jasbir Singh Aulakh, a day before his transfer, had sent a list of 148 arms licence holders to Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney and recommended that either the licence holders take the re-test or their arms licence should be cancelled. Despite repeated reminders these 148 arms licence holders have failed to appear for the re-test.

Of the total, 103 have to appear for retest at the Ludhiana Civil Hospital, 20 at sub-divisional hospital (SDH) at Samrala, 17 at Jagraon, five at Khanna and three at SDH Raikot.

One has to get the dope test done to get an arms licence or to get it renewed and in Ludhiana these are done at the Ludhiana Civil Hospital and sub-divisional hospitals at Raikot, Khanna, Jagraon and Samrala.

The re-test situation arose after the then Ludhiana Civil Surgeon Dr Jasbir Singh Aulakh carried out a sting operation and caught a civil hospital lab technician accepting a bribe to make a ‘fake’ dope test certificate. After this incident, the Civil Surgeon ordered to have the dope tests done between March 1-April 15 repeated.

The DC said she had sent the recommendation to Commissioner of Police as he was the licence issuing authority. Chahal said he was aware of the situation and would soon take action in this regard.

Numerous reminders were given to the applicants before sending the recommendation to the DC. Some applicants cited being unwell, others did not pick the call, while the remaining made the excuse of absence of arrangements to visit the testing facilities.