ECI initiates online monitoring of liquor
Ambika Sharma
Solan, March 24
In a bid to keep vigil on the movement of liquor in view of the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is monitoring the stock and seizures of liquor daily though its cVigil app. This is the first such endeavour where online monitoring of liquor is being done by the ECI.
The State Taxes and Excise Department (STED) has appointed nodal officers in every district and they are entrusted the task of daily filing reports of sale and left-over stock of liquor in the app. The lifted quantity is also compared with the corresponding period last year to examine if there was a sizable variation in the stock.
To set up control room soon
- The State Taxes and Excise Department is in the process of creating a control room for monitoring the movement of liquor from distilleries and bottling plants
- CCTV cameras are being installed to keep watch on the liquor units. There are three bottling plants in Solan district
“The general observer as well as the expenditure observers also monitor the liquor stock through the cVigil. An authorised store has also been created in the district by the STED after taking permission from the Collector, STED, where the seized liquor is stacked. Its record is also uploaded on the app on a daily basis,” said Dev Kant Prakash Khachi, Deputy Commissioner, STED, Solan.
The department was also in the process of creating a control room for monitoring the movement of liquor from the distilleries and bottling plants. CCTV cameras were being installed to keep watch on the liquor units.
There were three bottling plants in Solan district comprising Mohan Meakin Brewary at Solan and Kasauli, which manufactured beer and Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), Alco Brew at Gamber Pul, which manufactures IMFL, and HP General Industries Corporations, Parwanoo plant, which manufactures country liquor. They have set up online CCTVs as part of the track and trace system for end-to-end real time monitoring. The system was yet to be emulated in other districts.
Som Dutt Sharma, DC, STED, Baddi, said 206.335 bulk litres of illegal liquor comprising IMFL and country liquor valued at Rs 1.70 lakh has been seized in three cases from March 18 to March 23. “The staff is keeping a close watch and monitoring the borders of Haryana and Punjab by constituting inter-state joint action teams,” added Sharma.
