Taking a tough stand against manufacture and sale of hooch resulting in death after consumtion by unsuspecting drinkers, the UP has decided to award death sentence to people engeged in the illicit business.
The government would amend norms in State Excise Act and recommended life imprisonment and Rs 10 lakh fine which could even be extended to death penalty in case deaths occurred due to consumtion of spurious liquor. A decision to this effect was taken at a state cabinet meeting held in lucknow on Tuesday.
Briefing media persons on Wednesday, government spokesperson and Power minister Shrikant Sharma said that State Excise Act would be amended to include death penalty, life term and Rs 10 lakh fine for spurious hooch sellers.
Sharma said that the government while amending 24 sections of the Act has included a new section 60 (A) viude which, if people died due to hooch then the supplier could be given life term and Rs 10 lakh fine and his or her punishment could also be death penalty.
In another decision, the cabinet decided to include tax on liquor sale in Excise duty which in turn would increase the state's revenue.
The state government also deferred the payment of arrears to 12 lakh state employees by three months. Earlier, it had announced to pay 50 per cent of the arrears by October but now it has decided to pay it after December.
The UP government has also decided to adopt two Kartik Melas (fairs) at Tigri in Amroha and at Garh Mukteshwar in Hapur and now the government would spend funds to organise these fairs this year.
"For Garh Mukteshwar fair, the government would give the district administration Rs 2.52 crore while for Tigri fair an allocation of Rs 1.29 crore has been earmarked," the spokesman said.