Keeping in view of the widespread protests particularly by women against opening of liquor shops in rural and tribal areas, Odisha's excise minister Damodar Rout today cautioned excise officials not to take such protests lightly.
The minister asked the officials to give due importance to the views of gram panchayats before opening any new liquor shop within its limit.
Reviewing the performance of excise department at a state-level meeting at the Board of Revenue here, the minister observed that despite significant contribution to state exchequer through excise revenue, consumption of liquor is a social menace.
"Liquor and drugs are the root cause of several social problems," Rout asserted.
The minister also asked the excise sleuths to come down heavily on bootleggers and persons dealing with illegal drugs in the state. The meeting revealed that during the last fiscal, more than 17,000 excise cases were registered in the state in which 12,000 were arrested.
' It was also revealed that while nearly Rs 1,500 crore excise revenue was collected in 2012-13 fiscal, Rs 1780.29 crore was collected by the excise department in 2013-14. Encouraged by the achievements, the department in 2014-15 has targeted to collect Rs 2,150 crore as revenue.
