Tightening its noose around the liquor vends during the lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission will keep a check on the sale of liquor in the Capital. The Election Commission (EC) will conduct special scrutiny of the accounts of those vends whose sale increases by over 30 per cent in comparison to last month’s.
It will also deploy decoy customers to check if liquor is distributed illegally to lure the voters. If any liquor vend is found involved in wrong-doings, its licence would be cancelled.
Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev said that daily monitoring of liquor sales of retail shops will be done and sales exceeding by 30 per cent in comparison to last month’s average daily sale will be investigated. “Shops registering more than 30 per cent increase in sale on a day between the date of poll notification and the date of polling as compared to the average daily sale in the month of February will face action. Similarly, shops having liquor stocks of more than 50 per cent on March 1, 2014 as compared to last year would also come under the scanner and their licence would be cancelled if found involved in wrong-doing. Besides, liquor vends located in the slums, unauthorized colonies or away from the main roads in interior rural pockets will also come under focus during the lok Sabha polls,” Dev said .
According to Dev, the EC will send decoy customers to liquor vends to check supply of illicit liquor. This would be the first time that the EC will do so.
At a meeting of the officials of the Excise Department on Monday, Dev directed them to take strict action against use of tokens or coupons for sale of liquor and ensure proper maintenance of brand-wise stock register in all the retail shops, especially in respect to cheap brands. Officials have been instructed to zero in on potential storage points for illegal liquor and conduct frequent police patrolling and raids. CCTV cameras have also been put in place and the officials instructed to maintain the video footage for 60 days.
The Excise Department has also been asked to submit a list of warehouses as-well-as retail outlets in Delhi along with their locations to Delhi’s Chief Electoral Office (CEO) and all the Returning Officers (ROs) within 24 hours. District level nodal officers of the Excise Department have been directed to submit reports to the ROs on a daily basis.
“A 24x7 control room will be set up by the Excise Department to conduct daily monitoring of receipt and sale of retail shops, besides keeping a watch on the stock position of retail shops,” said Dev. An intensive vigil over inter-State movement of vehicles, especially to Faridabad, Gurgaon and loni border has also been ordered, said Dev, adding the department will maintain regular co-ordination among their counterparts in bordering States of Haryana and UP. Moreover, special forces will be deployed for check-post duties round-the-clock.
In a related development, 7905 bottles of India-Made Foreign liquor and ten bottles of beer were seized on Sunday.