To
The Chief Electoral Officer, Madhya Pradesh Bhopal
2. The Chief Electoral Officer, Rajasthan Jaipur
Subject: Prevention of Storage and Illegal Distribution of Liquor during elections- Instructions to DEOS for Daily Report of liquor Sale-matter reg.
Sir,
I am directed to draw your attention to the instructions of the Election Commission of India regarding Production, Storage and Distribution of Liquor during Election (ECI Compendium of Instructions on Election Expenditure Monitoring. July 2013 section 5.10.6, page 28). I am further directed to inform that preventing illegal liquor distribution during the election is one of the very important responsibilities of the Collector & District Election Officer and the Superintendent of Police. Observers of the Election Commission are also expected to monitor such activities,
2. In this regard detailed instructions have been issued from time to time and list of IMFL shops are be made available to the DEOS where there had been suspicious increase in sale of IMFL. The DEOS are also aware that all the excise units of the districts, namely Distilleries, Bottling Units, Liquor Warehouses have been brought under continuous surveillance of the officials concerned. In important units, officers and armed forces are to be posted round-the-clock. Moreover, almost in all districts. available officials are to be given the special responsibility of monitoring liquor flow during the elections. Some of the officials will have to be deployed on the border check post to prevent cross- border liquor movement during the elections.
3. Though, these steps have resulted in significant tightening of excise machinery in the State, yet the situation needs further improvement at district level. The retail outlets of liquor are turning out to be highly vulnerable from liquor distribution point of view. All District Collectors and Superintendent of Police need to work on this in a more focused and systematic way.
4. The Commission has been receiving following complaints:
A. Storage of cheaper brands of IMFL and country liquor in local slums, shanty towns and remote rural pockets for distribution prior to election. This storage is happening with help from the retail shops which are selling liquor in bulk to individuals, in contravention of State Excise Act and General and Special License Conditions.
B. Stock registers are not being maintained in some of the shops. It has been reported that some shops, even though maintain the stock register, they do not maintain brand-wise stock register This creates serious problems in monitoring the daily sales and makes physical stock verification of the shops almost impossible.
C. Coupons are being issued by the candidates, which are convertible into liquor bottles at the shops. This is violation of conditions of State Excise Act/Rules, which prohibits sales in any form other than cash.
5. In view of the above, I am directed to request for compliance the following instructions:-
i. Daily Monitoring of liquor sales:- Each district has, on an average 25 liquor retail shops. The district Collectors must ensure to get daily report of the shops where there has been significant increase in the sales. A good way of doing that will be to take the average daily sale of October 2013 for each of your liquor retail shop and compare daily sales figure with the October average. Wherever the sales figure exceed by 30% or more, it points to a possibility of bulk sale. These need to be investigated and severe action must be taken against the shop which may include even cancellation of the license.
For this a prescribed form for reporting is enclosed in Annexure-I. The District Collector is expected to get this report from the District Excise Officer/Assistant Commissioner and after taking suitable action send the report to the Election Commission (CEO) along with his remarks, in the format prescribed in Annexure-2.
II. Ensuring maintenance of stock register:-
It has been found during surprise inspections that some of the shops are not maintaining the stock register at all, or are maintaining it without following the prescribed format. This is done with a view to hide bulk sale information and to make stock verification very cumbersome.
District Collectors with the help of the District Excise Officer/Assistant Commissioner must ensure proper maintenance of brand-wise stock register in all shops.
III. Use of tokens or coupons for sale of liquor:-
Newspapers have been reporting that candidates are resorting to distribution to distribution of coupons/ tokens, which can be exchanged for liquor bottles at the liquor shop. This as pointed out earlier is a violation of General License Conditions of State Excise Act. Collectors are expected to take action against such shops.
IV. Listing and close monitoring of sensitive liquor shops:-
Classify the liquor shops in your district as sensitive based on the following criteria:-
A. Those shops which, on 01.11.2013, have liquor stock which is 50% or more than the liquor stock on 01.11.2012. The list of such IMFL shops has already been communicated However, you need repeat this exercise for Country Liquor shops in your district.
B. Shops, which are located in a slum or are located in close proximity of a slum.
C. Shops located away from main roads and located in interior rural pockets.
D. Shops which show more than 30% increase in sales on any day in November as compared with their average daily sales of October, 2013.
These shops must be monitored and their brand-wise stock register checked on daily basis.
V. Prevention of liquor storage for distribution in election:
Slum areas, shanty towns, camps (if any) in urban areas and remote or poorly accessible habitations in rural areas are potential storage points for illegal liquor. District Collectors with the Excise Officials are expected to identify such locations and conduct frequent police patrolling and raids in such locations.
6. In the light of all the above instructions, I am directed to request you to issue suitable instructions to the Collectors & District Election Officers to give a daily report in the format prescribed in Annexure-2 to the Special Secretary Excise (CEO), State Government, who will send a compiled report for the entire state to the Commission.
7. These instructions may be brought to the notice of all DEOS, SPs, all Observers and officers of Excise Deptt.
Yours faithfully.
Sd/-
(S. K. RUDOLA) SECRETARY
Copy forwarded for necessary action to:
1. Shri D.R. Johari, Addl. Excise Commissioner and Nodal Officer on Excise, C-100/50 Shivaji Nagar, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (By Camp Bag/Speed Post/email)
2. Shri Jitender Kumar Upadhyay, RAS. Addl. Excise Commissioner (Adm) Zone, Udaipur, Rajasthan(By Camp Bag/Speed Post/e-mail)
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