137 village panchayats want liquor vends shut down

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 7

As many as 137 village panchayats have approached the state Excise and Taxation Department demanding that the liquor vends be shut down or shifted outside their villages in the 2015-16 financial year.

Sources in the excise department said these applications had been received from various districts. “There could be more applications in the pipeline,” said a senior officer.

In 2012-13, 140 applications were received that demanded the closure of liquor vends, following a resolution passed in the respective village panchayats. However, the excise department had decided that 32 villages would not have liquor vends and in 20 other villages, these would be shifted out of the village boundary line.

For the 2014-15 fiscal, 79 applications were received for the closure of liquor vends.

According to official figures available with the department, Sangrur and Patiala top the list of villages where panchayats have officially passed resolution against liquor vends in their territory.

Some villagers alleged that liquor mafia did not want to lose revenue and so, their applications had been rejected following pressure from them, a charge denied by excise officials.

The department has a three-point agenda for accepting applications for the shutdown of these vends. The resolution by the panchayat should be passed before September 30, with a two-thirds majority and no liquor smuggling case should be registered in that village.

“The excise department is working under the pressure of liquor mafia. There was no need to reject villagers’ claim for a liquor-free village. We will approach the high court for justice through a public interest litigation,” said AS Mann, president, Scientific Awareness and Social Welfare Forum, an NGO fighting against liquor consumption in Punjab.

However, senior officials in the excise department claimed the decision to reject the applications in certain cases was taken on technical grounds and there was no pressure from any lobby.

Meanwhile, the sale of liquor has increased over the years in the state, which can be substantiated by the fact that the state had a total of 7,256 liquor vends in Punjab in 2011, while the number was 5,652 in 2005-06.

Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Excise) Neelam Chaudhary said the revised data will be available in the next few days.