50 cops to get weapon training per day

JAIPUR: Aiming to address lack of practice of weapons amongst its personnel, police headquarters have made a target of giving firing training to more than 50 cops per day. Special training sessions will be held for those cops who will underperform in their initial firing practice.

For this, director general of police (DGP) Bhupendra Singh has passed orders to all district and range police chiefs.

DGP Singh said the firing practice should be held every day as per the decided scales of the police headquarters. The practice sessions should be held regularly so that every day more than 50 police personnel can get training of weapons, he said.

“The policemen should be given information about the weapons for three days before firing practice. Special courses and musketry practice should be held for those who fail or scores less firing practice,” Singh said.

The district units have been also asked to prepare the report of marks obtained by the cops during firing sessions and sent a quarterly report to the police headquarters.

According to the order, before and during firing practice, the weapons would be cleaned on regular period and record of which would be maintained by the armour unit and for this, a nodal officer of inspector rank would be appointed. “If during or after firing practice any weapon is damaged due to lack of maintenance then departmental enquiry would be done and strict action would be taken against those found guilty the personnel and nodal officer,” the orders added.

Stung by the escape of Haryana’s gangster Vikram alias Papla Gurjar on September 7, after his aides attacked the Behror police station in Alwar district, the law and order wing of Rajasthan police had issued orders to all the police range and district chiefs to conduct practice of modernised weapons at regular intervals.

“During various visits, the DGP observed lack of training of modern weapons amongst police personnel which were allocated to them in recent years. That’s why there is need of practice of modern weapons,” the order said.

Recently, unpreparedness of the cops posted at Behror police station was exposed who could not even use their weapons after an attack by aides of Vikram alias Papla Gurjar.

Senior policemen, who had reached the police station after the incident, expressed their dissatisfaction over the fact that the station staff were not able to fire back. The cops had to also face action for laxity which led to escape of the dreaded criminal from Behror police station.

A senior official of the police headquarters said most of the personnel do not attend the annual firing drills. “The cops are allowed to fire at least 10 rounds from their service weapons in the practice sessions. But most them avoid this session and do not oil and clean their weapons on regular intervals. As a result of which when they are required to fire on emergency situations they are either unable to fire or their arms get jammed due to lack of servicing,” the officer said.