Thiruvananthapuram: In view of the festival season, district administration has strengthened raids to unearth illegal brewing of liquor.
The district-level monitoring committee meeting chaired by additional district magistrate Anil Joseph has decided to conduct extensive raids to check the illegal brewing and smuggling of spurious liquor.
The enforcement team of the excise department and the narcotics department have intensified their searches in the border areas of the district for this.
The deputy excise commissioner who was present in the meeting said they have deployed enforcement squads in various parts of the districts.
The special drive activities of the enforcement will be extended to September 5.
A 24-hour control room is active in the excise district headquarters where people can call if they have information on illegal brewing of liquor. The excise department also enforced two striking force units and one border patrolling unit for this purpose.
As a part of the inspection, the excise team has done 698 rides in the district so far and have registered 67 Abkari cases and 38 NDPS cases. A total of 42 accused were arrested during this drive.
The team also seized 504 litres of spurious liquor, 14 kg of ganja, and 1,227 kg of banned tobacco. More than Rs 10 lakh fine has been imposed against the offenders.
