Rourkela: Since the announcement of the dates of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha, the Excise department has been on an overdrive in and around this town. Elections to the Sundargarh Lok Sabha constituency and the Assembly segments within it will be held May 20. The Excise Department has launched a massive crackdown on people selling illegal liquor and drugs. Officials of the Excise department informed here Thursday that the crackdown has yielded tremendous results. A total of 515 cases have been registered between March 16 to May 11 and 441 persons have been arrested for dealing in contraband items.
Along with it, huge quantities of cannabis, heroin, country and foreign-made liquor have been seized. The jurisdiction of the Rourkela Excise department covers this city, Biramitrapur municipality and Bonai sub-division. So far the department has seized 15,546 litres of country liquor, 2.36 quintals of fermented ‘mahua’, 195 litres of ‘fake’ foreign liquor, huge quantities of beer and Indian-made foreign liquor (IMLF). All these seized items have been destroyed, officials said. The department has also seized 22.14 kilograms of cannabis, they added. “With polls just around the corner, we expect more seizures. We have been on our toes even before the election dates were announced,” Excise Department inspector S Pradhan informed. He stated that along with the contraband items they have also confiscated the vehicles that were being used for transportation of the contraband items.