Uttarakhand withdraws its excise order

Ahead of the general elections in Uttarakhand, Bhartiya Janata Party scored a political victory when the state government withdrew its controversial order allegedly favouring two companies for the wholesale foreign liquor (FL-2) business in the hill state.

The BJP had last week approached the election commission against the Congress-led government for "quietly" changing the state excise policy in order to "generate election funds to the tune of crores of rupees" in the middle of the election code. Through this order, the BJP had alleged the government was trying to give the contract of the wholesale FL-2 business to only two companies.

"Following the BJP complaint, the government clarified that it has already cancelled the order on the excise policy," said Radha Raturi, the state's chief electoral officer.

On the other hand, the BJP was in jubilant mood. "This is our big victory which will be reflected in the election also," said Ajay Bhatt Leader of the opposition.

The government on March 29 issued the order stating that from June 2014, the wholesale foreign liquor (FL-2) would be sold only through two centres - one in Dehradun and other in Udhamsingh Nagar. Through this order, the government had tried to cancel the transparent wholesale liquor policy where all the big companies were entitled to open their depots in the state. But through this controversial order, the government had allegedly restricted the sale of foreign liquor through the two centres or companies only, alleged Ajay Bhatt.

"This has also meant that the government was making an under table agreement with some big liquor mafias on the lines of Uttar Pradesh," Bhatt had alleged. Bhatt further alleged the new policy would have also harmed the state's revenue in a big way as the government used to get license fees from over 40 companies through the original policy.