810 booze shops ready to reopen

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Bhubaneswar, July 7: The state government has allowed 810 liquor shops, closed at the behest of Supreme Court orders, to reopen after de-notifying the state highways.
Following the orders of the Supreme Court, the state government had closed down 1240 liquor shops located within a radius of 500 metres from state and national highways. However, to regain the revenue loss, the state government has de-notified the state highways passing through the municipal areas, notified area councils and sub-divisional headquarters. Such roads have been re-designated as urban roads.
Reviewing the progress made in compliance with the orders of the apex court, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi directed the excise department to tighten enforcement and check sale of illicit and spurious liquor. It was observed at the meeting that the state has compiled with the court directive.
It was decided at the meeting that IT-enabled mechanism would be adopted in excise operations for tracking sale of genuine liquor in authorized shops.
It was decided to develop bar-coding techniques for ensuring genuineness of bottles being sold on the counters. A trace and track mechanism would be put in place connecting the Orissa Beverage Corporation with the licensed counters. This would help overview sale position at the counters while ensuring sale of the genuine products. Target was set to develop these IT systems within four months, sources said.
The government has further decided to set up excise stations in different parts of the state for intensifying enforcement activities and improving the excise operations. The excise stations would be notified soon, the sources said.
The meeting resolved to entrust Excise inspectors and sub-inspectors with these stations and make effort to fill vacant posts to intensify enforcement activities in the current fiscal.
As many as 66 projects have been taken up for construction of in-charge offices with custody and godown rooms. As of now 52 projects have been completed and 14 others are in various stages of construction. Funds have been placed for construction of 15 additional offices with hazat and malkhana, they said.
The state has collected an excise revenue of `670 crore up to June 2017 while the collection during the corresponding period in the previous fiscal was `659 crore, an increase by 1.5 per cent.
As per sources, 21,277 cases were filed and 17,784 persons arrested in connection with violation of excise norms during 2016-17. Last year’s seizures included 2,49,090 litre of ID (illicitly-distilled) liquor, 9,860 litres of IMFL (India made foreign liquor), 8,537 litres of beer, 13,43,056 litres of wash, 6786 kg of Bhang, 11,423 quintals of mahua flower, 732 litres of spirit, 13,576 kg of marijuana and 787 kg of brown sugar. PNN