Government stamps down on liquor permits

AHMEDABAD: On Wednesday when the state government suspended renewals and fresh issuance of liquor permits on health grounds, it left tipplers high and dry and worried about how they could procure their monthly booze quota. Sources in the prohibition department claim that corruption in issuing permits was a principal reason for the state home department suspending issue of fresh permits.

Home department sources say that the corruption in issuing liquor permits on health grounds in most of the cases allegedly start at the time an aspirant goes to buy the form. "Official fee for the

liquor permit

form is Rs 550, which has now been raised to Rs 1,000. But sometimes double this fee is demanded from applicants," said a source.

Sources from the prohibition department said that the next step comes while procuring a certificate from a private doctor. "In some cases private general physicians charge up to Rs 5,000 per permit from aspirants for prescribing liquor for a specific illness," said a source.

Sources said then the liquor-permit seeker is mandated to make a donation up to Rs 10,000 towards poor patients’ welfare collected by the ‘

Rogi Kalyan Samiti

’ of respective government hospitals. For instance, Rs 10,000 is charged at the

Civil Hospital

under the constitution of the trust formed by the government.

Sources also said that there are examples where some senior politicians call up prohibition officials to recommend their friends and relatives for liquor permits on health grounds. "In some cases, the aspirants allegedly give costly gifts to prohibition officials who helped those getting liquor permits on health grounds," added a source.

According to figures of 2016, nearly 65 lakh liters of

IMFL

was sold legally through different licensed liquor shops in the state. "The figure rose to 68 lakh liters in 2017 and is expected to rise more in 2018," said a senior prohibition official.