Excise Dept: Illegal crops on 625 acres destroyed this year

Jammu, October 17

Illegal crops spread over 625 acres of land and nearly one lakh litres of illicit liquor were destroyed in J&K this year, Excise Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Sharma said. He asserted that the proactive approach of the department ensured “zero deaths” by spurious liquor consumption in the Union Territory.

He said the department had implemented an e-governance initiative by designing e-Abgari portal that had led to transparency, efficiency and accountability in the system.

Several cases lodged

• 54 FIRs have been registered till September. Anantnag and Pulwama account for the highest 26 and 20 cases, respectively.
• Last year, 31 cases, including 19 in Pulwama, were registered. 95K-litre illicit liquor has been destroyed till September this year.

“The department being one of the constituent departments under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act plays a vital role in uprooting poppy and cannabis in collaboration with the Anti-Narcotic Task Force (ANTF) and the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB). The drive against the banned crops was encouraging in Kashmir where 4,143 kanals (517.8 acres) was cleared of cannabis and 645 kanals (80.6 acres) of poppy cultivation by September this year,” he said.

Liquor destroyed

Nearly 1-lakh litre illicit liquor destroyed this year. —Pankaj Kumar Sharma, excise commissioner

According to Sharma, the drive was also carried out at a major scale for the first time in Jammu region where a total of 250 kanals (31.2 acres) were cleared of wildly grown cannabis. However, he said there was a drastic reduction of 90 per cent incidences of the banned crop cultivation in the Valley. He said 54 FIRs were registered till September against the offenders with Anantnag and Pulwama districts in south kashmir accounting for the highest 26 and 20 cases, respectively. Last year, 31 cases, 19 in Pulwama district alone, were registered.

The commissioner said the department last year destroyed 1.35 lakh litres of lahan (illicit liquor) after generating special information, mostly in Jammu region, while 95,000 litres of lahan was destroyed till September this year with culprits booked under relevant sections of the law.

“We have a very proactive approach against illicit liquor…We generate information from our sources and act swiftly to wipe out the menace and save the human lives,” he said. “There were no deaths related to consumption of illegal liquor in the Union Territory.”

Sharma said provision of providing quality liquor to the consumers is one of the important functions of the department.

“We prevent illicit distillation and eradicate bootlegging for which two of our dedicated teams – enforcement wing and eradication wing – are working round-the-clock,” he said.