Excise Minister Orders Strict Action Against Illegal Alcohol Production and Sales During Festival Season

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh’s Minister of State for Excise and Prohibition (Independent Charge), Shri Nitin Agarwal, has directed the excise department to remain vigilant during the festival season. He emphasized the need for continued enforcement actions against illegal liquor production, sale, and smuggling. He also ordered strict measures against those drinking and serving alcohol outside unauthorized liquor stores.

In a departmental review meeting held at the Sugarcane Institute, the minister highlighted that revenue collection in September amounted to ₹3246.67 crore. So far, the state has collected ₹22563.15 crore this financial year, compared to ₹20226.55 crore during the same period last year. He commended officials from Mirzapur, Ayodhya, and Varanasi for their achievements but issued warnings to those from Basti, Gorakhpur, and Azamgarh, urging them to achieve 100% revenue targets in the coming months.

To curb liquor smuggling, he instructed officials to tighten security at border posts with Chandigarh, Haryana, and Punjab. The minister stressed the importance of surprise inspections of liquor shops and asked for the cooperation of GST teams in these efforts. Additionally, he called for continuous, intensive searches to completely ban illegal local liquor (kachchi sharaab).

Principal Secretary for Excise, Smt. Veena Kumari, reported that in September, the excise team conducted 78,848 raids and seized 227,957 liters of illegal liquor, leading to the arrest of 330 individuals. In the current fiscal year, 463,947 raids have been carried out, and 1,434,083 liters of illicit liquor have been seized, with 5,555 arrests and 118 vehicles confiscated.

The meeting was attended by senior officials, including the Additional Excise Commissioner (Administration), Shri Gyaneshwar Tripathi, while district officers joined virtually.