Jamshedpur, April 21: Amidst ongoing lockdown, the administration has sealed all the 135 licensed liquor shops across the East Singhbhum district. The administration is also keeping an eye on these shops and the owners have been warned that not a single bottle of liquor can be taken out of these sealed shops.
Meanwhile, concerned over the seizure of duplicate liquor continuously, Manoj Kumar, excise assistant commissioner, Jamshedpur has called upon the people not to consume the kind of Indian made foreign liquor available through bootleggers.
” We have been receiving complains from different corners so we have increased vigil of 135 licensed liquor shops across the East Singhbhum district. If anyone comes up with any liquor bottle for sale, claiming it to be genuine one, then one should be cautious,” said Kumar.
He admitted that several businessmen have started making IMFL of popular brand unauthorisedly in a clandestine manner for taking an undue advantage of the situation in which scores of people crave for liquor in the steel city and beyond.
“We are conducting raids and have seized the consignment of spurious liquor either at the place where it is manufactured or on way. But despite the knowledge that all the liquor shops are closed, a section of people still buying liquor by putting their lives at risk,” said the assistant commissioner.
Though sale of liquor has completely stopped since the lockdown came into effect on March 25, liquor bottles are finding their ways to the boozers clandestinely across steel city. Various popular brands of the Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) is being sold at a premium. A popular brand of liquor, MRP of which is Rs 900, is being sold at a price ranging between Rs 1,200 and Rs 1,600 a bottle. But the liquor bottles are changing hands to the ultimate users only through ‘reliable’ people.
�Illicit liquor is a hugely profitable industry where bootleggers pay no taxes and sell enormous quantities of their product. There is a need to restrict extensive abuse of the intoxicant in order to reduce untoward incidents in the society. Continuous raids must be carried against illegal distilleries especially in view of lockdown,� noted another official.
Notably, the steel city has a history of manufacturing of duplicate liquor as the district police had in the past busted several rackets of duplicate liquor manufacturing units, especially from the localities like Bagbera, Jugsalai and Kadma.
