Dry law fails to deter bootleggers in south Gujarat

Despite the prohibition and routine "seizure operations" by officials, liquor is easily available in Surat and other parts of south Gujarat.

Police had raided a farm house on the outskirts of the city on Sunday night. Hundreds of bottles of liquor were seized and 97 persons, including many businessmen and several prominent personalities, were arrested, police said.

City police commissioner Vineet Kumar Gupta, however, denies liquor is easily available in the city.

Gupta said, "The incident certainly does not mean that liquor is easily available in Surat. Liquor seized from the farmhouse was of highly priced brands. We believe that the liquor was specially procured for the party from Mumbai or some other place outside the state."

However, Gupta said liquor was available in the city.

"We are doing everything within our means to curb flow of liquor in the city, but as long as people want to drink, it is going to be available. But I certainly can say flow of liquor into Surat has reduced a lot. We have made it difficult for bootleggers to smuggle liquor in the city," said Gupta. Gupta said there are two main reasons for liquor flow into Surat.

"The first reason is that liquor business is very lucrative. The money one can make is so huge that people do not mind taking the risk involved in bootlegging. The second reason is that the police department is overburdened," said Gupta.

"We are already burdened with various responsibilities. Then there is the problem of staff shortage. But we are still doing everything in our power to control the menace," the commissioner said.

Officials of the prohibition department also claim that they are doing their very best.

A prohibition official said, "There are several places from where liquor is smuggled into Gujarat. As far as south Gujarat is concerned, liquor mainly comes from Daman, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh."

"Thousands of vehicles come into Gujarat from these places every day. It is not possible for us to check each and every vehicle, but we are trying our best to curb bootlegging," the official said.

"In the first five months of this year "" from January to May "" we registered 18,632 prohibition cases in Surat division. Seizures worth over Rs. 12.14 crore were made in this period which includes seizure of over 450 vehicles," the official said.

"We too have our share of problems. Over 50 per cent posts in our department are lying vacant. We have not even been allotted adequate number of vehicles, which makes our job all the more difficult. However, we are taking all possible steps to curb liquor flow into the region," he said.