Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi has directed the Odisha State Beverage Corporation (OSBC) to adopt IT techniques to check illegal inflow and sale of liquors in retail shops.
Padhi gave the direction while reviewing the activities of the corporation on Wednesday. The OSBC was asked to carry forward end-to-end computerisation of purchase and sale of licensed liquor. Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan advised OSBC MD to conduct surprise check verification of the stock at retailer level for the purposes of checking inflow of illegal liquor from across the border to the State.
The Chief Secretary also advised the corporation to modernise its depots with mechanised and computerised systems for ensuring safe stock keeping and hassle-free delivery. It was decided to have all the depots under CCTV surveillance with a central control room connection.
Excise Secretary Vir Vikram Yadav appraised that an online payment system by retailers to the OSBC through SBI e-payment gateway has already been adopted by the corporation for the purposes of correct accounts keeping.
The OSBC operates nine depots at Khordha, Cuttack, Brahmapur, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Angul, Jajpur, Balangir and Baleswar. It was decided to set up nine new depots in various parts of the State so as to keep those places free of spurious and illegal liquor.
It was further decided to put in place the online system of purchase, sale and payment on a real time basis from August 1. As of now, around 1,500 licensed IMF and FFM retailers of different parts of the State are raising stocks from various depots of the OSBC. As per the orders of the Supreme Court, as many as 404 shops are still closed from April 1.
OSBC Managing Director Dwijaraj Kara and Chief Executive Officer Manas Kumar Swain participated in the discussions.