Excise Staff Association demands more powers

Palakkad, July 28 (UNI) The Kerala State Excise Staff Association today urged the government to provide more powers to the Excise staff to curb illicit distillation and the sale of spurious liquor.

Association president V R Rajan told a news conference here that the Excise staff also required arms, better communication system and vehicles for effectively checking illicit distillation.

He said arrack ban in the state had resulted in proliferation of illicit distillation resulting in an annual revenue loss of Rs 1,500 crore to the government.

The Association also called upon the government to discontinue direct recruitment of preventive officers as it denied opportunities to eligible Excise guards.

A two-day state conference of the Association will begin here tomorrow.

UNI AR PMM1828