Excise Department has seized 2900 cartons of smuggled liquor worth over Rs 1.50 crore in last five days from the district, officials said.
Seven persons were today held and 276 cartons of smuggled liquor seized by teams led by three inspectors, District Excise Officer Kuldeep Yadav said.
The market value of seized liquor is around Rs 13.50 lakh, he said.
"On February 26, a team had seized 1400 cartons of smuggled liquor from Jewar area and on February 24 around 1200 cartons from the same area. The market value of these consignments was around Rs 1.40 crore," Yadav said.
"Beside these, excise team seized liquor worth Rs 10 lakh from Noida and Greater Noida areas. The total value of liquor seized since February 24 is over Rs 1.50 crore," he said.
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It also has punishment of three-year jail term and a
penalty of Rs 1 lakh, or both, for excise officials who harass somebody in the name of search under prohibition without a solid basis of suspicion.
The Bill has a clause for imposing collective penalty.
The draft says if a collector, excise official or police find that any group or community of any village, a city or any area within such village or city habitually violate prohibition laws or become a hurdle in its implementation a collective penalty could be imposed in such a situation.
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters the provision of putting all adult members above 18 years of age of a family behind the bars in case of seizure of liquor was "draconian" and his party would protest it.
He further alleged the government brought the Amendment Bill "without wider consultation with all political parties".
Chief minister Nitish Kumar told reporters the Bill has been brought to make prohibition law more stringent.
He said the legislation against liquor was a social issue and not a political one and valid suggestion of all members were welcome.
