Excise department to intensify special enforcement drive in district for Onam

The Excise department will intensify its special enforcement drive in the district as part of various steps to curb the flow of illicit liquor during the Onam season.

A meeting of the excise’s district-level committee presided over by Additional District Magistrate T.K.Vineeth on Friday decided to takes steps to prevent the sale, production, distribution, and smuggling of spurious liquor in the district.

The special drive in the district will be on till midnight on September 20. To strengthen the enforcement activities, the district has been divided into two zones and two striking force units, which will function round the clock, have been formed. These striking forces will be based around the Neyyattinkara and Attingal Excise Circle offices. Each striking force unit consists of one Excise Inspector/Assistant Excise Inspector, one Preventive Officer, two Civil Excise Officers and a woman Civil Excise Officer.

The Thiruvananthapuram division also has a 24-hour district level control room. The border patrol unit is also actively on the ground in the border regions of the district. R. Ajay, Assistant Excise Commissioner in charge of the Deputy Excise Commissioner, informed the meeting that enforcement officers of Police/Forest/Coast Guard/Marine/GST and range officers are conducting joint inspections to prevent illicit liquor and drug trafficking in coastal areas.

A total of 843 Abkari cases, 312 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and 6,582 Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) have been registered in the Thiruvananthapuram division from December 2023 to August 2024. In Abkari cases, 729 arrests have been recorded, while 300 arrests have been recorded in NDPS cases. In various raids conducted across the district, 88.356 grams of MDMA, 443.532 kg of cannabis, 12.169 grams of brown sugar, 8.098 grams of narcotic tablets, 29 cannabis plants, 2248.350 litres of IMFL and 188.05 litres of fake IMFL have been seized.

Also, 26,22.315 kg of various types of tobacco products, 69.7 litres of beer and ₹29 lakhs of unaccounted money have been seized. 90 vehicles were taken into custody. A total of 2,146 awareness programmes against drug use were conducted by the department.