Despite the government's call to submit licensed weapons for elections to the House of Representatives and provincial assemblies scheduled for November 20, the response from licence holders is not encouraging.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on October 1 had appealed to licencees to submit licensed firearms - both small and large - to the nearest police office within three weeks. There are only five days to go for the elections.

However, the government has received only around 2,000 weapons from across the country.

The appeal was made to licencees for safekeeping of weapons to prevent their potential misuse during elections.

Earlier, the Election Commission had issued a directive to the MoHA, urging it to keep licensed arms in the custody of police until the polls were over.

The licensed weapons have been provided by the district administration offices to persons on the basis of the risk of security threat to them in accordance with the existing law.

Kathmandu DAO alone has issued firearms licence to around 5,000 people. There are around 34,000 licenced firearms across the country.

A source at the MoHA said most of the licencees were reluctant to submit the licensed arms. He informed that around 2,000 licensed weapons were received.

He warned that the licencees who failed to submit their firearms would be kept under constant surveillance to ensure that the weapons legally possessed by them were not misused. "In the event of misuse, they would be liable to legal action, in addition to revocation of the licence," he said.

The MoHA has prohibited any person other than security personnel from carrying and using firearms, explosives, toxic substances, batons, spears, khukuris, rifles and pistols. It said the move was part of security arrangements for elections to hold the polls in a free and fair manner.