Scores of liquor seized ahead of the polls

Team Udayavani, May 9, 2018, 3:01 PM IST

Bengaluru: Flying squads of the Election Commission (EC) have seized close to 5.2 lakh litres of liquor stored by the supporters of candidates of the Assembly elections. Large quantities of non-duty paid (NDP) and illicitly distilled (ID) liquor were stashed at paying guest (PG) accommodations and working men’s and women’s hostels.

Until May 7, 5,188,059 litres of liquor worth Rs. 24.04 crore were seized. During the 2013 Assembly elections, only 67, 953 litres were seized. The Basavanagudi zone of the Excise Department has also issued a communiqué to alert people of these findings. People have also been instructed to report such matters to the department through phone (9449597218, 9980847456).

Joint Excise Commissioner Rajendra Prasad said, “People must be cautious about booze being distributed by politicians as it may contain NDP or ID which will cause health issues”. He informed that 893 liquor vending licences have been suspended due to violations and later, 370 of these were revoked when suitable explanations were provided by the vendors. But, some vendors complain that the entire stock is being confiscated because of a couple of bottles being mislabelled.

Though many retail liquor vendors want to close their outlets until the elections, so as to not create any unnecessary problems, the excise department has to grant them prior permission to do so. President of the Karnataka Wine Merchants Association, G Vanagiri Gowda, said that hundreds of retailers have sought for permission to close their outlets, but have not received any response yet.