Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the 2024 elections, the state Excise department has categorized five coastal districts as ‘sensitive’ for the trade of illicit liquor and narcotics drugs, while the Capital City of Bhubaneswar ranks the highest for consumption and distribution of contraband in the state. Excise Commissioner Narasingh Bhol said Cuttack, Balasore, and Nayagarh districts have been identified as areas having the highest illicit-alcohol manufacturing units, while Balasore, Puri, Bhadrak, Cuttack, and Nayagarh have shot to notoriety for trade of brown sugar. “We have marked them as sensitive for the upcoming elections,” he said.
The Excise Department top official said Bhubaneswar reported the highest in the state for brown sugar peddling, supply and consumption. While the department has directed the Bhubaneswar Excise Superintendent to undertake enforcement measures and deploy mobile units in the City’s slums, plans are afoot to initiate crackdowns against the various syndicates running the operation in the coastal districts. Sources in the Excise department meanwhile, said that a weekly report detailing the state-wide enforcement drive would be submitted to the State Election Commission (SEC) till the culmination of the Lok Sabha elections. Side by side, Bhol said round the-clock security measures will be in place at the 38 inter-state border check posts along neighbouring states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Telengana from where the contraband consignments are finding their way into Odisha. The field officials, in addition, would undertake stringent preemptive actions at sensitive zones near the borders known for the supply of manufactured hooch, said Bhol. According to the sources, the Excise officials have also been instructed to tighten noose around peddlers involved in smuggling Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) to other states, thereby causing losses to the state revenue.