Jamshedpur, Oct. 9: In view of the ensuring Durga Puja, Jharkhand Excise authority here have taken initiative to check manufacturing and smuggling of illicit liquor in the steel city. Following hooch deaths in Ranchi and its adjoining areas,the Jharkhand Excise is taking several measures.
Assistant commissioner, Jharkhand Excise, Manoj Kumar said that they have set up three special squads for detecting illicit distilleries and liquor dens in and around the steel city.
“As per our experiences there is strong probability that during Puja, the sale of illicit liquor will go up in the city. As the illicit liquor traders must have also become active in manufacturing and supplying the hooch into the city, we had to take necessary steps as precautionary measure,” said the assistant Excise commissioner.
“At present we have set up three squads which will be comprised of magistrates and Excise officials. We will also keep local police for providing the support wherever the teams will require. While two of the teams have been deputed in the city, the third team will remain deputed at Ghatshila,” Kumar informed.
The senior Excise official said whereas the Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) city managers Ravi Bharti and Ranjan Pandey will be deputed with the raiding squads in Jamshedpur, executive magistrate Devendra Kumar Das will remain deputed at Ghatshila.
He pointed out that the three squads will monitor the sale of liquor in and outside the steel city and these teams werefree to impose penalty and arrest the accused.
Notably, from August 1, 2017 liquor is sold from the government-outlets only and during a limited period of time. The liquor is sold from 1 pm till 10 pm in the city and 1 pm till 8 pm in the rural areas. Moreover, the number of liquor outlets is very few. There are 69 liquor outlets in city and only five in the rural areas of the East Singhbhum district.
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.
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, they tend to sell the duplicate stuff.
