Govt continues to maintain blind eye towards illegalities
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 10: Notwithstanding their criticism from different quarters, those at the helm of affairs in the Excise Department are continuing with their designs of facilitating opening of bars in blatant violation of J&K Excise Act, 1958 and J&K Excise Policy 2017-18. This clearly indicates that no serious efforts have so far been made by the Government to break the liquor mafia-officials nexus and rather blind eye is being maintained towards all the illegalities.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that some officers of the Excise Department are leaving no stone unturned to grant a license for running a bar in a hotel constructed on the land of Railways at Jammu Railway Station as a part of chain of hotels being operated in different parts of the country.
Actually, attempts were made in the past through a businessman, who is associated with this chain of hotels, for grant of bar license for this hostel constructed on the Railways land but keeping in view the explicit provisions of J&K Excise Rules, the then District Magistrate Jammu as well as Senior Superintendent of Police had rejected the application.
Even the Railways authorities had not granted permission for running bar in this particular hotel especially in the light of rejection of application by the then District Magistrate and SSP Jammu, sources said while pointing towards the Jammu and Kashmir Liquor License and Sales Rules, which explicitly state that if the site of the proposed license is near a Railway Station, the Deputy Excise Commissioner shall ask for the opinion of the Railways authorities.
“Now, the businessman by exerting political pressure has managed to obtain No Objection Certificates (NOC) from the district administration as well as police so as to make a ground before the Railways authorities for grant of permission for opening bar in the hotel”, sources said, adding “instead of going through the reasons behind denial of NOC in the past certain civil and police officers preferred to succumb to the political pressure and to become party to the Excise officers-liquor mafia nexus”.
Similarly, a bar being operated near Railway Station has changed its title to Bar and Restaurant with the sole objective of making it a part of the under-construction hotel on its completion, sources said, adding “this is being done by keeping in mind that this hotel would not be able to obtain bar license as there is a provision which states that there should not be any bar within 100 meters from the Railway Station”.
Quoting another instance, sources said, “the Excise Department has also initiated the process for giving license of bar to a banquet in Jammu City South which otherwise is situated very near to a home for destitute being run by a missionary and in normal procedure cannot be granted”.
They further informed that a hotel situated on National Highway in Vijaypur has also shifted its bar to a recently constructed banquet hall, which otherwise is not part of hotel’s premises. “As per the rules, the bar should be opened in the premises for which it was allotted but in this case the bar has been shifted by circumventing the rules”, sources added.
They informed that despite being aware of illegalities in all these cases those at the helm of affairs in Excise Department are maintaining blind eye mainly with the sole purpose of nursing the nexus with liquor mafia. “Interestingly, the Government has not made any serious effort to break this nexus and is allowing the same to continue for obvious reasons”, sources added.
Pointing towards a committee of five Deputy Commissioners of Excise constituted vide Order No.39-E of 2013 dated April 17, 2013, sources said, “the basic objective behind framing this committee was to handle all the important issues like location of bars but this committee was rescinded few months back in order to centralize the decision making powers”, adding “being multi-member committee it was not possible for anybody to influence its decision but this was not being digested by those officers of the Excise Department who have nexus with the liquor mafia”.
“Had this committee been in place the prevailing illegalities would have been checked up to large extent”, they further said while expressing serious concern over the silence being maintained by the Government on rescinding of Order No.39-E of 2013 dated April 17, 2013.
“Those officers who are in nexus with the liquor mafia are even hell bent to harass those officials who they considered as road-block in their designs”, sources said while disclosing that recently an Excise and Taxation Officer was shifted from one place for not following the directions vis-à-vis facilitating illegalities but within few days the same ETO was brought back to earlier place just with a purpose of giving him a strong message that if he failed to follow the dictates he will be posted in far-off place.
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