This story is from December 11, 2014

Haryana police still persisting with vintage .303 rifles

Manvir.Saini@timesgroup.Haryana police continue to be passionate towards the use of .303 rifles, which have been in use since late 19th century, for the purpose of ceremonial fires, drills and training.
Haryana police still persisting with vintage .303 rifles
CHANDIGARH: Haryana police continue to be passionate towards the use of .303 rifles, which have been in use since late 19th century, for the purpose of ceremonial fires, drills and training. However, fascination for vintage weapons has put the state police in a spot as these rifles failed to fire during the cremation ceremony of martyred soldier Lance Naik Deepak Kumar at his native village in Jind last week.

Embarrassed, police authorities have placed the in-charge of armoury of Jind police lines and a team of cops deployed on the ceremonial duty under suspension. The cops have been sent to Haryana Police Academy (HPA), Madhuban for a one-year training as punishment, said a release issued by Haryana government on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the constabulary blamed fewer firing sessions as one of the reasons for poor functioning of the less-used .303 guns. "It is only twice a week when police force goes for the mandatory firing practice. How will you check the weapon until you use it? And we are not the armed forces who use weapons quite frequently," said a head constable.
Unlike other states which have phased out .303 rifles for all practical purposes, Haryana police is likely to take longer. Unwilling to quantify, senior officials in police department said that there are over 55,000 such rifles lying in the armouries of various police wings like police training school, Indian reserve battalions, police lines, Haryana Armed Police, police stations and police posts.
"The .303 rifles are part of training. We have other weapons as well, but using .303 rifles is also a part of the drill. However, all weapons are checked periodically," said ADGP (training) R C Mishra.
Rewari range IG Mamta Singh admitted the presence of century-old old guns in the armouries. "These weapons are lying redundant for over a decade. Except for being used in drills for new recruits, these rifles are hardly used in the field as we have advanced weapons like automatic-loading rifles (ALRs), self-loading rifles (SLRs), carbines, assault rifles and small weapons," she clarified.

As Haryana DGP S N Vashisht and ADGP (law and order) Mohammad Akil remained inaccessible, IG (modernization) Ajay Singhal expressed inability to quantify .303 rifles and insisted that state police force was equipped with latest weapons.
BOX:
2 suspended for issuing wrong ammunition
Haryana government has placed under suspension ESI Dharambir Singh (armourer) and head constable Raj Kumar (in-charge guard) responsible for issuing wrong ammunition to the salami (ceremonial) guard for the cremation ceremony of martyr Lance Naik Kuldeep Kumar at Jind on December 7. A departmental inquiry has also been ordered against them. A police department official said that the probe would be conducted by Narwana deputy superintendent of police Adarshdeep Singh. Apart from this, ESI Raj Kumar (lines officer, Jind police lines) and four constables, who were members of the salami guard, have been deputed to Haryana Police Academy, Madhuban for training for a period of one year.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA