Yogi Government To Step Up Drive Against Illicit Liquor Trade

Lucknow, May 11 (TNA) To prevent the manufacture and sale of illicit liquor in Uttar Pradesh, the state government is bracing up to further intensify its drive against liquor mafia and trade. Under this strategy, enforcement units are being made functional to monitor the border areas of other states.

At the same time, officials are holding meetings with the scrap dealers and junkyards, warning them not to misuse the "Pet" bottles for filling illicit liquor. Efforts have been intensified to curb the manufacture of raw liquor in the Kachar areas along the rivers and the time limit for the transportation of liquor and spirits has been cut, thereby reducing such movement.

The smuggling of liquor through illegal liquor bases, roadside eateries, closed factories, grocery shops, tincture sellers, spirit shops and buses is being strictly monitored and cracked down on, sources in the Excise Department inform. 

A control room has been set up at the Excise Headquarters to provide information about illicit liquor which is functional 24x7. Here such information can be given on toll-free number 14405.

The state government is taking strong action against the persons involved in the manufacture and trade of illicit liquor, and the liquor mafia. In many districts including Mathura, Azamgarh, Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Ballia, Mirzapur, Amroha, Shahjahanpur and Meerut, raids have been conducted on illegal liquor shops for the last few months, in which people who manufacture and sell illegal liquor were arrested. Their factories have been razed to the ground and action against them has been taken in the strictest of laws like IPC, Gangster Act and Goonda Act.