Excise Department up the ante against illegal sale of liquor in Jamshedpur  

Jamshedpur, March 6: In a bid to check the sale of illicit and spurious liquor, the excise department has launched a drive in the wake of Holi. Officials of the excise department have from today started carrying out surprise checking of stocks of the licensed liquor shops and also looking into whether the shop owners are doing back-door sales of liquor.

Revealing about the drive, an official Excise Department said that he has instructed his officers to go to each and every liquor shop by making random inspections and ensuring whether the liquor being sold over the counter was having the same batch number that the liquor shop owners have given in their papers before the department.

” During Holi, the sale of liquor from the retail shops goes up manifold. It has been seen from the records that just 48 hours before the festival of colour, the liquor shop owners sell stuff worth over Rs 5 crores, which during ordinary time hardly crosses the Rs 1 crore within the same period of time.  Taking advantage of the craze for liquor among the people, some unscrupulous shop-owners tend to sell duplicate liquor,” said the official.

He pointed out in the event of a surprise inspection of the stock, the liquor shop-owners will not take the risk of getting nabbed selling duplicate liquor, because the inspection teams have been instructed to check the batch number of the liquor bottles being sold at the counter.

He stated that the surprise inspection will continue even during the night and if any shop-owner is found selling the duplicate liquor, then he will stand to face the music.

“We will not only cancel his license, but also prosecute the shop-owner.” the official emphasised while talking to this correspondent. He also called upon the people to inform Excise department and get

a liquor bottle checked by the department if any one of them finds any doubt in a liquor bottle.

“If any liquor seems to be duplicate, the consumer may feel free to inform us.  What one has to do is to just turn up with the batch number of the particular liquor and the name of the shop from which one has bought the liquor.  We will get the liquor bottle verified and take necessary steps against the guilty shop-keeper,” said the official.

At Jamshedpur there are 98 Indian Make Foreign Liquor (IMFL) licensed shops, 51 country-made liquor shops and 15 spicy liquor shops.

Notably, the steel city has a history of manufacturing 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.

Knowledgeable sources maintain that the racketeers of duplicate liquors use to do the rebottling of the brand which has the maximum demands, and when the liquor shop owners do a brisk business on such occasions like Holi, they tend to sell the duplicate stuff.