Baliapal: The smuggling of country made liquor and spurious foreign liquor from West Bengal through several rural routes and their illegal selling has assumed alarming proportions here in Balasore district these days, with the police and excise department turning a deaf ear to complaints in this regard.
There are three licensed foreign liquor off-shops and one FL on-shop in Baliapal block. But then again, there are many illegal foreign liquor shops running here as well.
Local people held the excise and police department responsible for the situation going beyond control.
The illegal liquor business is flourishing here for three to four reasons. First, since the excise department is busy fulfilling its target, action is nil. Second, neither the police nor the excise department is providing any safety to the women groups engaged in anti-liquor movement.
Third, the excise department officials never swing into action even if the members of anti-liquor groups inform them after catching and detaining these illegal bootleggers.
Once, some women had gheraoed a liquor smuggler’s house at Aladiha village under this block and informed the excise department. But none turned up even after hours. Then they had gone to Baliapal police station, 12 km from their village, carrying the liquor only to hear from the police that they don’t have any power.
The way the excise and police department are treating the complaints against the illegal liquor vendors, we feel depressed, they alleged.
If the present situation continues, Baliapal will one day witness anything like liquor tragedy incident.
As the excise department is mounting pressure for meeting target, the licensed liquor vendors are engaging 20 to 30 persons at villages to sell liquor. They are charging Rs 10 to 20 more for a bottle. But there is no mechanism to find out if the liquor is spurious.
Even if excise department staff from Basta and Balasore come, by the time they reach Baliapal they would find none as the illegal liquor traders have already fled the spot by then. Earlier the police would conduct raids at regular intervals but this has also been stopped.
Odisha Nisha NIbaran Abhiyan’s president, Baliapal branch, Narayan Prasad Sahu, state vice president Adaitya Patra and members like Arabinda Behera, Dhirendra Nath Karan, Kshitish Jena, Jeevan Das, Kushdhwaja Jena and Arjun Barik urged the district administration to take steps to curb the illegal liquor trade.
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