Raid on liquor shops fail to check flouting of rules

Tirupati: The raids being conducted by the excise and prohibition department on liquor shops and imposing penalties for flouting MRP has become a farce, as the liquor shops after paying penalty resume their old practice. There are 206 wine shops and 18 bars in Tirupati excise district, which covers 19 of the 66 mandals in Chittoor district; 43 shops and 12 bars are located in the temple town.

As the government has imposed restrictions on establishing wine shops near railway stations, bus stands and on the Tirumala bypass road, where the movement of devotees is more, most of the wine shops are located in other places, which are treated as residential zones. Many wine shops maintain sitting places for the convenience of their customers and some run their business attached to dhabas. As  many wine shops are managed by a liquor syndicate, where ruling party associates are also involved in the business, violation of government rules  continues, despite warnings from excise minister Kollu Ravindra, duringhis recent visit to Tirupati.

According to Tirupati excise officials, the department has conducted raids on the wine shops which are violating MRP rules and booked 23 cases across the excise district.  “Recently, we seized six shops in Tirupati urban and two shops in Tirupati rural and imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh each. When the wine shops pay the penalty we have no option but to release the seized shop. Following the directions of Chief Minister N. Chandra-babu Naidu, we have asked all the wine shops in the district to maintain e-PoS(swiping machines), which will not only the resolve the problem of small currency shortage but also check the violation of MRP rates,” they said.

However, the liquor syndicate seems unruffled about the raids and penalty for flouting MRP rules. When contacted,  one of the wine shop owners said they will get back the penalty amount of Rs 1 lakh within 3 days by selling the liquor for more than MRP. For each quarter bottle or one bottle beer the wine shops are collecting Rs 10-Rs 15 extra. There is no concession even for a full bottle of liquor, where the extra amount will be Rs 40 and above. Despite a cash crunch, the wine shopowners are not interested in installing swipe machines in the shops as it will disclose their illegal collections.