Prohibition Minister Amar Agarwal said on Monday that the State Government has no plans for imposing prohibition in the State before the upcoming Assembly polls .
The Government has streamlined the machinery to control sale of liquor in the State, he said while addressing a press conference here.
Illegal sale of liquor in the State had stopped after the State Government took over the control of liquor sale in the State, he said. There are no middlemen involved in liquor sale in State, Agrawal said.
Regarding achievements of Urban Administration Department, Agrawal said the state was adjudged first by the National Urban livelihood Mission in implementation of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana.
A steady improvement was achieved under the scheme. In financial year 2015-16 we were on third position and in 2016-17 we attained second position before achieving the top position in the current year, he said.
The Minister also appreciated the Mission Manager and his team for the achievement.
Agarwal claimed that a major facelift was witnessed in the capital city of Raipur under Smart City Scheme.
Commendable work had also been done in the cities of Bilaspur, Durg and Rajnandgaon under the Mission Clean City, he said. Under ‘Mission Clean City’ we are sanctioning e-rickshaws to women beneficiaries, he said.
A total of 50,000 women all over the state were trained under the scheme and 16,000 have now owned their own rickshaw which is plying across the state. The rest of them who were trained had been provided certification and soon they too could begin self-employment, he said.
Talking about development works in the Department in order to provide better facility of water supply he said that under ‘Mission Clean Kharun’, a sanction of Rs 3.5 crore and for purification of historic Budha Talab Rs 5 crore has been made.
Meanwhile, notably, no liquor either foreign or country is sold in Chhattisgarh's retail outlets without the seller offering a bill of purchase from April 1 this year.
A directive in this regard was issued by Prohibition Minister Amar Agrawal while reviewing a monthly meeting of Prohibition Department here recently.
He stated that if it is found that liquor had been sold without generating bill and scanning of the product tag, action will be taken against concerned Prohibition Officer.
The Minister also directed to form a committee of senior officers to examine bars operating in the State.
Most of the bars in the State are concentrated in Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg-Bhilai, Agrawal said.
He said that the officials should start publicizing toll free number 14405 launched for citizens to provide information or lodge complaint related to Prohibition Department.
Agrawal said that the Prohibition Directorate should be immediately informed in billing and scanning systems are not working in a retail shop.