No SOPs for CCTV cameras in Haryana distilleries: Enquiry team

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 7

The Special Enquiry Team (SET) probing the liquor scam has said Haryana’s Excise and Taxation Department did not issue any standard operating procedures (SOPs) for operating CCTVs and storing footage in distilleries and wholesale licence premises.

It pointed out that Excise and Taxation Commissioner (ETC) Shekhar Vidyarthi did not ensure compliance of closure of vends during the lockdown. It has added that no instruction was issued for disposing of seized liquor.

The ETC told the SET that all distilleries, liquor factories and wholesale licence premises of L-1 and L-13 had CCTVs, but no SOPs regarding operation, monitoring and storage of feed had been issued. The SET said SOPs would have checked the illegal liquor supply.

Vidyarthi was questioned as to why he did not issue instructions in writing immediately after a decision was taken to close vends with effect from March 2.

The SET noted that directions to close vends were issued by Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioners (DETCs) and “it was only through newspapers that he came to know that permits and passes were generated on the system during the period of closure”.

Vidyarthi and the Excise Collector had no answer on the monitoring mechanism for storage of seized liquor, accounting for it and destroying it in the stipulated time. The SET said they could not cite any case of instruction to any DETC.

The SET found that the department had failed to ensure that penalties were levied on time under the Excise Act. Of the 8,337 cases, penalty of Rs 8.58 crore was imposed on 8,171 cases, but only Rs 7.21 crore recovered till June 1, “leaving a huge balance of Rs 1.37 crore”.

The SET found that the police in general were naming drivers of confiscated vehicles as accused, but in most cases, no serious effort seemed to have been made to address the origin of liquor.