468 Arms licenses issued by Delhi Police in 2020

New Delhi [India], March 5 (ANI): As many as 468 Arms licenses were issued while 6,263 licenses were renewed by Delhi Police's Licensing Unit in 2020 despite operational constraints of the COVID-19, according to Delhi Police data.

The Licensing Unit deals with the licensing of - Arms, Explosives, Hotels, Restaurants, Cinema, Press, Auditoriums, Amusement Parks and Performance Licenses among others.

It cancelled 83 arms licenses and issued 388 casual performance licenses last year. In 2020, 19 lodging licenses for guest houses and hotels were issued while 587 licenses under the same category were renewed. 17 lodging licenses for guest houses and hotels were cancelled by the unit.

The Licensing Unit issued 114 register certificates for eating houses, renewed 215 and cancelled 21 certificates.

Suvashis Choudhary, Joint Commissioner of Police, Southern Range said the Licensing Unit has emerged today as one of the important 'Image Hub' of Delhi police.

"In the last few years, a major reorientation of the role of Licensing Unit has been brought about within the existing statutes. The important roles and responsibilities of the Licensing Unit have been re-defined by three I's- issuance of Licenses, Inspection of entities and Interaction with stakeholders," he said.

The police official highlighted that continuous efforts are being made to ensure "ease of doing business" in compliance to the clarion call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a citizen-centric approach.

The Licensing Unit is a compact unit with a total strength of 196 personnel (as on December 31, 2020) and is divided into sections- AmrnsExplosives, Eating Houses, Loding Houses, Casual Performances, Cinema and Amusement, Press and Private Security Agencies and Electronic Data Processing.

Asserting that licensing process is dynamic and ever-changing, Choudhary, Joint Commissioner of Police, Southern Range said that the unit has lined up several projects in the near future including Application of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Issuance of Arms License in form of Smart Card, development of a Licensing app, digitization and achieving of physical records, redesigning of licensing unit website and Database Management System (DBMS). (ANI)