Curtains for British-era .303 rifles in UP after Republic Day

Come Republic Day, it will be curtains for the British-era .303 rifles in Uttar Pradesh where it has been in use for decades by the police.

Before the weapons fade into the pages of history, some of these will be used for training purposes, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told PTI on Friday.

".303 rifles are already on their way out. They will be used only for training purposes and not in actual use," Awasthi said.

With a view to equip the force with modern weapons, the Uttar Pradesh government is already in the process of providing 63,000 INSAS and 23,000 SLR rifles to the state police.

The UP Police will finally be equipped with modern weapons as the .303 rifles are being gradually replaced by INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) and SLR (Self-Loading Rifles), Awasthi said.

He said the state police force was being modernised to ensure peace and an effective control on law and order, besides ensuring women's safety and a sense of security among the common people.

The arrangements for additional weapons have been made keeping in mind future recruitment drives, a senior official said.

Looking back at the efficiency of the Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifle, retired IPS officer IC Dwivedi told PTI from Bangalore, "It was a reliable and accurate weapon and could fire uninterrupted. The maintenance aspect was low."
A 1972-batch IPS officer SR Darapuri, who retired in as Inspector General-cum-Principal of Armed Training Centre, Sitapur (UP), told PTI, "In our time, mostly .303 rifles were used. Since the weapons were heavy, handling these was cumbersome as compared the SLRs. I used them last time during practice firing at Armed Training Centre, Sitapur."
ADG (Meerut) Prashant Kumar, when contacted, said, "The latest weaponry used by police is better. The .303 was good as per the requirements of that time."
The report titled Performance Audit of Modernisation and Strengthening of Police Forces, tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly stated, "As per the 1995 instructions of the MHA, the .303 rifles became obsolete by 1995 and required replacement by modern weapons."