The anti-boozing stir spree, dragging for months in Dehradun district, particularly since the Supreme Court issued its landmark order for relocating liquor shops after shifting them from the outer edges of the national and state highways, has intensified as the Mussoorie MlA Ganesh Joshi led the local people in shutting down a booze shop at Jakhan on Saturday evening. Joshi said that despite the locals having asked the excise department to shift the shop to some other place, the excise department has released license for the same shop. “This is something we would not accept,” he said.
Venting annoyance over the shop being shut down by the agitators under the leadership of the MlA, a senior excise department officer based in Dehradun said that with the stir spree continuing, around half of the liquor shops for which the department has issued licenses have been shut down. “The district excise department is consequently incurring a huge loss of revenue coming in the form of excise tax. We are worried over how to meet the increased revenue target fixed by the state government,” he said.
The district excise office Manoj Kumar Upadhyay said that undeterred by the agitation, they are opening 14 liquor shops for which no application for license had been received from the traders during the lottery system are being opened one by one on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, another senior excise officer said that Raipur police had registered a case under sections 147/332/353/336/323/504/506/427 of IPC against nine named persons for their alleged involvement in the scuffle with police personnel during an anti-boozing stir in an area under the Raipur police station on May 8. The agitators that day had allegedly pelted stones on the police persons and stopping the government officials from executing their duties. However, no arrest has been made so far in connection with the incident.
He said that the police should arrest the persons who are taking law in their hands while protesting against the relocation of the booze shops.
He further alleged that police not being proactive in dealing with such stirs has left the excise department grappling with a huge amount of revenue loss. “They should be present in the scene before the stirs are staged instead of reaching there after the agitators indulge in ransacking and the like,” he added.