Liquor flows freely in villages, towns of Mahbubnagar district

Mahbubnagar: Thought the State government claims that it is implementing the lockdown strictly and taking all necessary measures to ensure that public follow the rules and keep them in house safely from the coronavirus, however, it has least impact on the liquor sales, as wine and other country- made alcohol is flowing freely across the erstwhile Mahbubnagar.

The Excise and Prohibition department, though had taken some initiatives to act on the liquor dens in various Thandas and rural villages and destroyed them and seized large cache of black Jaggery and other materials meant for manufacturing illicit liquor, but these officials have failed to act on those wine shop owners who have violated the lockdown and selling their stocks stealthy by breaking the seals of their shops and shifting the stocked wine at midnights and selling to their customers at exorbitant rates and fleecing them to the maximum extent taking advantage of their weakness during these times of scarcity.

For instance, a few days ago, a wine shop owner in Atmakur mandal of Wanaparthy district broke open the sealed lock of his wine shop and shifted all the stocks from his shop and sold it to various belt shops in the villages and other customers across Atmakur and surrounding areas.

This incident came to light, when some locals took the video on their cell phones and posted the same on social media which went viral. Only after which the Excise police officials woke up from their slumber and booked a case against the culprit. However, the locals and people across the district are of the opinion that the Excise police should keep a vigil on all the wine shops and make sure that no one should resort to such illegal sales of wine during lock down.

"The Excise police are acting only if any complaint is filed and after which they go mum. Instead, the Excise department must act pro-actively and implement strict supervision on the sales of wine," says Raghavender, a resident of Atmakur.

Similar incidents were also witnessed in Pebbair and Veepanagandla mandals of Wanaparthy and in Kollapur and Kalwakurthy mandals of Nagarkurnool district. It is learnt that the wine shop owners are selling the cheap liquor bottle at Rs 600, while those of branded wine is going up to Rs 2500 to Rs 5000 depending upon its brand and demand for it. And those who cannot afford the branded liquor are turning to country liquor available in tandas. "In Kalwakurthy, liquor and wine is flowing freely. It is not that the excise officials do not know about this, but they are turning a blind eye for reasons known to them. The customers who are habitual are not hesitating to pay any amount to get the wine. But those who are not able to afford are going to rural tandas to quench their addiction with country made- illicit liquor," says Goverdhan Reddy of Kalwakurthy.

Particularly, the illicit liquor business in tandas is flourishing very well. Though the Excise department had conducted raids here and there, but this is only tip of the ice berg, while there are thousands of tandas across Gadwal, Nagarkurnool, Mahbubnagar, Narayanpet and Wanaparthy districts who are fully immersed in alcohol sales and doing a brisk business.

Overall wine shop owners and illicit liquor manufacturers both in towns and rural tandas are making a brisk business taking advantage of lock down. The excise police so far have seized more than 1200 quintals of black jaggery during their raids on tandas and booked cases on dozens of people. "It is true that illicit liquor manufacturing instances have increased in tandas. We have kept a strict vigil and doing our best to see that black jaggery is not smuggled and we have also been conducting raids and destroying the liquor dens in tandas."

"This apart, wherever we found wine shop owners violating the Excise rules cases are being booked," informed Shanker, Excise Circle inspector, Kalwakurthy.