UT acts tough on liquor smuggling

The UT Administration has decided to take stringent action against six officials over inter-state smuggling of liquor from Chandigarh to Punjab and Haryana.

Sources said liquor from bottling plants located in Chandigarh was being illegally supplied on a large scale to establishments in Punjab and Haryana for the past sometime.

In the wake of several incidents of such illegal supply of liquor, the UT Excise and Taxation Department has decided to take stringent action against two Excise and Taxation Officers (ETOs) and four Excise and Taxation Inspectors (ETIs). They were responsible for supervising the bottling plants from where the liquor was apparently smuggled into Punjab. Four of these officials were posted with the UT Excise Department from Punjab and Haryana.

According to sources, the six officers have been chargesheeted and the department has initiated proceedings as per the Punjab Excise Act, 1914, against them. Two officers each are from the UT Administration, Haryana and Punjab cadre. They have been asked to submit their replies with 15 days.

To curb the inter-state liquor smuggling, the department has been regularly conducting inspections of bottling plants. It has stepped up inter-state coordination to curb inter-state smuggling and facilitate information sharing. If any liquor brand meant for sale in Chandigarh is seized from another state, the UT department seeks the details of the seizure, so that it is able to complete the linkage (backward & forward) to trace the origin of sale.

The department has conducted 20 inspections of bottling plants and 63 of liquor vends in the past few months. Its efforts led to the seizure of 29,946 bottles of various liquor brands.