This story is from July 13, 2020

Kerala Police to procure Rs 1.73 crore worth ammunition

After facing severe criticism from Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for mismanaging ammunitions, state police are set to purchase another sizeable number of ammunitions soon.
Kerala Police to procure Rs 1.73 crore worth ammunition
They will be purchased from ammunition factory, Pune, and ordnance factory, Varangaon (Representative image)
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After facing severe criticism from Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for mismanaging ammunitions, state police are set to purchase another sizeable number of ammunitions soon.
The government has given clearance to police to purchase 3,75,000 ammunitions worth Rs 1.73 crore. The ammunitions will be purchased from ammunition factory, Pune, and ordnance factory, Varangaon. The purchase includes 9mm ball cartridges which are the ammunitions for the pistols.
As many as 1,50,000 units will be purchased in this category for pistols, which is the most common weapon used by police for civil policing.
The purchase also includes 25,000 units of 0.22mm rimfire cartridge (which is a type of metallic firearm cartridge), 1,00,000 units of 7.62mm Nato ball M-80 CTN-packed cartridges and 1,00,000 units of 7.62mm ball A-7 cartridges. The 7.62mm ball ammunitions are used in antipersonnel role by infantry that can be fired from semi-automatic rifle and light machine guns. These bullets, which have a shelf life of 18 years, have a lead core inserted inside a gilding metal jacket.
In June last year, police had procured 42 AK 103 assault rifle, hundred 7.62mm assault rifle TAR, two light-armoured troop carrier with underbelly ballistic protection and an anti-mine protector for counter-insurgency operations for all-round protection, with a central assistance of Rs 5 crore. In addition, police will also procure 10 multi-shell launchers, more than three lakh cartridges and 500 fragmentation grenades.
In 2018-19, police had procured 200 units of 7.62mm self-loading rifles (SLRs) to its collection from Ordinance Factory, Thiruchirappalli, at a cost of Rs 1.59 crore. Also, 200 sub-machine gun (9mm carbine 1A1) from small arms factory Kanpur were also procured.
However, police had to face severe criticism from the CAG this year when it audited police’s arms and ammunition stock for the last few years, citing that as many as 12,061 live cartridges are ‘missing’. According to the CAG’s report, 1,835 units of 5.56mm cartridge for INSAS rifles, 1,578 units of 7.62mm A7 cartridge for AK-47, 8,398 units of 7.62mm M80 rifles for self-loading rifles and 250 units of 9mm drill cartridges were missing from the ammunition stock of the state police. The CAG had also remarked that as many as 25 Insas automatic rifles are also missing.
However, police had retrieved the ‘missing’ cartridges and rifles from its units and found that the reasons behind the arms and ammunitions were ‘missing’ was the mismanagement of records.
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