Dehradun: With poll preparations in full swing, the Election Commission as well as law-enforcement authorities will have their task cut out to curb the free flow of liquor during the election season. Past trends have shown that close proximity with Nepal, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh has led to illegal liquor being brought into the Himalayan state rampantly during campaigning.Official data shows that in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, excise teams had conducted 2,458 raids in a span of 42 days, that is an average of 59 raids a day. Around 242 cases were registered and the total liquor seized during the polls was 8,950 litre which was estimated to be worth Rs 25.57 lakh.The liquor menace went up further in the 2017 assembly elections, as the joint teams of the EC and excise department seized 51,515 litres of illicit liquor worth Rs 1.84 crore. Speaking to TOI about the measures put in place to ensure that this time, the liquor flow is curbed during elections, Deependra Chaudhari, state excise commissioner, told TOI, “We have put in place a strong system before the elections. All the directions of the election commission are being enforced in letter and spirit to ensure that liquor is not used to influence voters.”Elaborating further, Chaudhari said, “District monitoring committees have been set up having members from police, district administration, forest and excise departments. Forest department is being kept in loop in intelligence sharing and joint operations, as most of the smuggling is done through forest areas.” He added that a control room has been set up at excise commissioner’s office in Dehradun and a nodal officer of the rank of additional commissioner has been appointed to co-ordinate with districts.“CCTV cameras with IP addresses have been installed in four distilleries, bottling plants and around 40 warehouses and constant monitoring is being done at headquarters level, so that no illegal movement of liquor is possible,” Chaudhari said.Incidentally, notwithstanding the major hooch tragedy recently in which over 100 people died in west UP and Uttarakhand, hooch is also expected to be used in swaying voters during the elections especially in the plain areas of the state. It remains to be seen how effectively officials will be able to galvanize their resources to make sure that booze does not become a deciding factor in these polls.

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