Teeth for cops: U.P. to spend ₹96Cr on armoury, communication system

The Uttar Pradesh government is to spend nearly ₹96 crore in a move to strengthen the state police armoury and internal communication upgradation, confirmed home department officials.

They said the state government had approved the budget for purchase of 5,600 pistols, 2,000 light weight rifles, around 3.98 lakh cartridges, 500 body-worn cameras for security personnel guarding courts across the state as well as advanced radio system for better communication among police personnel in high-risk temple town Ayodhya.

A senior home department official stated that the state government has issued three separate government orders dated September 30, for the purchase of arms and ammunition, body worn cameras and advanced radio system for Ayodhya.

He said the list of firearms includes the 9mm pistol, which is one of the most popular self-defence and service handgun cartridge choices around the globe, and 5.56 mm rifle, which is an accurate lightweight rifle, compact and handy weapon suitable for terrestrial and maritime assignments.

He said this rifle is a gas-operated rifle that can fire in single shots and three round bursts for conservation of ammunition. Besides, a simple action of lever change allows selection of single shot, three round burst and safe position, he explained.

The official further informed that each 9mm pistol costs ₹83,700 so the government has approved the budget of around ₹46.87 crore for 5,600 pistols. Similarly, one 5.56 mm rifle costs around ₹1.21 lakh so the budget of around ₹24.20 crore for the purchase of 2000 rifles.

Besides, a budget of ₹18.56 crore has been approved for the purchase of ammunition including 15.5 lakh cartridges of 9mm pistols and 20 cartridges for 5.56 mm rifles as well as 8,000 cartridges of .338 Lapua and 300 Grand machine guns as well as three lakh 5.56 mm blank cartridges, which is a non-lethal ammunition designed to provide security forces with realistic training and maximum safety at low cost.

He said the government is going to spend a major portion of the sanctioned budget of around ₹89.67 crore on purchase of firearms worth ₹71.07 crore and ammunition worth ₹18.6 crore.

Radio base stations with antenna system for Ayodhya

Another government official said that the government has approved a budget worth ₹3.7 crore for purchase of a radio base station with antenna system for better internal communication system of police forces deployed in Ayodhya.

He said the list of these gadgets included four radio base stations worth ₹2.24 crore (around ₹56 lakh per unit) and the remaining ₹1.46 crore for its accessories including power support system and omni directional antenna and network management software. He said this radio base station will help to provide a congestion-free internal radio network.

500 body-worn cameras for security personnel guarding courts

The government has approved a budget of around ₹2.5 crore for the purchase of 500 body-worn cameras to be given to security personnel guarding courts across the state. He said these body worn cameras will cost ₹50,000 per unit.