The Election Commission has taken the sheen out of the attempts by political parties to keep voters in ‘high spirits’ ahead of the Assembly elections. A strict vigilance by election observers deployed in all areas resulted in drastic reduction in the sale of liquor by 60 per cent.
“liquor sale in the capital has come down substantially. Compared to last time, the sale of alcohol has seen a reduction of 60 per cent,” said Vijay Dev, CEO on Tuesday asserting that “intense enforcement” of model code of conduct by the Commission had a major role to play in reducing the liquor sales in comparison to the sales last year during the same period.
A grand total of 53 lakh litres of beer was sold last year while this time it was down to 30 lakh litres. IMFl liquor came down to 54 lakh this year compared to 2 crore 48 lakh litres last year and sale of country liquor was recorded at 14 lakh litres this year compared to 21.31 lakh litres which was sold last time.
According to the commission, during the first week of November 8-14, when the Model Code of Conduct came into force, the beer sales came down by 60 per cent, Indian-Made Foreign liquor by 80 per cent and countrymade liquor by 40 per cent compared to the sales last year. “To prevent political parties or candidates from offering free alcohol to voters ahead of elections, the EC had already deputed large teams of flying squads and surveillance teams. This time, 90 inter-State check points were also been monitored to keep a tab on the supply of liquor from neighbouring States,” said Dev.