Mafiaraj in Excise passé: Minister

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 27: “They broke and bent laws to suit their interests, in collusion with a section of officials in the State Excise department, robbing the State exchequer of crores of revenues. That liquor mafia was active sometime back when the Congress was in power at Dispur," said State Excise Minister Parimal Shuklabaidya.

Talking to The Sentinel, Shuklabaidya said: “Nobody is above the law. We’re here not to allow breaking or bending of laws. Soon after coming to power we’ve acted tough against the mafia. Even 18 officials were suspended for colluding with the mafia, and departmental action was taken against nine others. During the Congress regime the department had to incur huge losses in the form of Excise revenue. Since we’ve plugged all holes in the past one-year-and-a-half, excise revenue collection has gone up by 24 per cent. As many as 35 licenses of retailers, wholesalers and producers of liquor have been cancelled for violation of excise rules.” On New Year celebration, Shuklabaidya said: “We’ve appealed to bar owners to do business within limits of the law. We’ve asked them to keep sending CCTV footages to Excise officials to as to let them monitor the situation.”