Haryana liquor making way into Punjab

Parvesh Sharma & Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Sangrur/Bathinda, September 5

With liquor rates in Haryana 30-40 per cent less than those in Punjab, liquor continues to be smuggled into various districts of Punjab from the neighbouring state. Punjab shares a 45-km stretch with Haryana. 

The Sangrur police have registered 658 cases of liquor seizure and arrested 751 persons since January this year.  “As the district shares a long border with Haryana, smugglers generally try to smuggle liquor in small quantities,” said Sangrur SSP Sandeep Garg. In the Bathinda Police Range compromising Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar districts, 1,020 cases have been filed under the Excise Act and 1,024 peddlers arrested since April 16. In Mansa district, 330 cases have been filed and 336 arrested.

Punjab page: Screening bootleggers at Haryana border an ‘uphill’ task

Bootleggers are smuggling liquor into Punjab primarily from Sirsa and Dabwali in Haryana. A police official said: “Those in the trade are well-acquainted with link roads leading to Bathinda and are often successful in evading the police.” With 35 passages between Sangrur and Haryana districts along the inter-state border, the peddlers mostly carry liquor bottles on motorcycles, scooters, cars and tractor-trailers.

Not wishing to be named, cops in Sangrur claimed that distilleries too had a role in it.  A retired police official in Bathinda said those who failed to get liquor contracts in Punjab often took to smuggling liquor from Haryana. “Now, border villagers have begun to do likewise to make quick money,” he said. 

“Contractors in Punjab engaged in smuggling already have links in Haryana and have only to rope in couriers to deliver liquor to their contacts. They have fixed customers. The mobiles have made their job easier. Many a times, they simply leave the consignment in the fields,” another retired officer said.