Sale of Liquor in Delhi: In Delhi, the government has decided to implement the old excise policy back. At the same time, while cancelling the new excise policy, Sisodia has accused the BJP of selling spurious liquor.
Here the opposition is constantly accusing the Kejriwal government of corruption.
Delhi government has taken a U-turn on excise policy. Within 9 months of its implementation, the Delhi government has withdrawn the new excise policy.
Manish Sisodia, who is handling the excise ministry and is deputy CM of the state, has announced the implementation of the old excise policy for 6 months.
But the politics of accusation and counter-accusation is seen fiercely in this excise policy. The BJP is accusing the Delhi government of corruption, while the Delhi government is resorting to Gujarat's poisonous liquor scandal to implement the old excise policy.
The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi had raised questions on the new excise policy of the government and ordered a CBI inquiry on it.
Due to this move of the Lieutenant Governor, this policy came under the purview of controversies. The result is that the Delhi government had to withdraw its new policy.
Here the liquor traders of Delhi were also seen unhappy with the new excise policy.
Due to which the shutters of about 200 liquor shops in Delhi have fallen in the last 9 months.
Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has withdrawn the new excise policy. But the statement that has been made while withdrawing is going to raise the temperature of the political environment.
Sisodia has blamed the BJP for withdrawing from the new policy and has made serious allegations directly against the BJP.
Re-implementing the old policy, Sisodia said that we do not want a tragedy in Delhi due to spurious liquor like Gujarat, so Delhi's old excise policy will remain in force.
Sisodia made serious allegations on the BJP and said that these people want there should be a shortage of liquor in Delhi because if there will be a shortage then they will get benefits. These people make and sell fake liquor. Here is a direct reference to the recent Lattha scandal in Gujarat.
The Deputy CM said that our government had brought a new excise policy last year. Before the implementation of the 2021-22 policy, there were mostly government shops in Delhi.
BJP had given the licenses of the private shops in Delhi to his own people and used to charge a very little license fee.
Earlier there used to be 850 shops in Delhi, which has now remained only 468. Many more shops will be closed from the coming August 1 as people are going to leave the shops due to fear of CBI and ED.
The Delhi government implemented the new excise policy on November 17 last year. According to this policy, all government and private liquor shops in Delhi were closed and tenders were distributed afresh.
Regarding the new policy, the Delhi government had said that the new excise policy would benefit the government with crores of rupees in revenue. Along with this, liquor mafia will also be controlled in the state.
In this policy, Delhi was divided into 32 zones. In the new policy, liquor distribution was allowed to only 16 people which was likely to increase the monopoly.
This policy came into the controversy only after the appointment of the new Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena in the state.
The Lieutenant Governor had expressed apprehensions of many irregularities in this policy and ordered a CBI inquiry on this policy. After which this policy was embroiled in controversy.
The Lieutenant Governor had issued a report during the investigation, in which it was said that the Delhi Excise Act and Delhi Excise Rules have been violated in this policy.
In this policy, the license fee of liquor vendors was also waived. Due to this, the government has suffered a revenue loss of about Rs 144 crore.
This report of the Lieutenant Governor has also made serious allegations against Delhi Deputy CM and Excise Minister Manish Sisodia.
This report says that Manish Sisodia has violated the statutory provisions and excise policy.
Liquor traders were also not happy with the new excise policy of the Delhi government. A businessman says that the government has neither been able to implement its policy properly nor could it convince the liquor traders.
The reality was that the government first gave a discount on liquor, and then the government withdrew it. Then again the government had permitted to give discounts on liquor. Traders suffered a lot from this.
Under the new policy of the government, liquor shops were opened in every ward, which increased the competition. Liquor traders gave huge discounts to the people. But later the discount was removed by the government. Due to this the liquor traders lost crores. Apart from this, liquor traders could not open shops in the border area under the new policy, due to which they also suffered a lot.
The opposition has continuously accused the government regarding this matter. The opposition is constantly accusing Kejriwal of corruption.
BJP says that many small sellers of liquor in Delhi have closed their shops. At the same time, the government is giving huge discounts to the big shopkeepers, due to which they are losing business.
