The authenticity of the statutory security hologram labels affixed on branded liquor bottles sold in Kerala could have been seriously compromised by now given that a private agency had been printing them since April 2002, according to State Excise and Police Department officials.
They have asked the government to urgently bring the printing and custody of the supposedly tamper-evident labels under the singular supervision of the Excise Department to avoid the risk of the security holograms reaching producers and sellers of bootleg liquor.
They have also recommended that the seals be modified with more hidden security features and made machine readable to prevent future duplication.
The government had in 2001 entrusted the printing and supply of security labels to the State-owned C-DIT. The organisation sub-contracted the “secretive and sensitive” work to the “private agency.”
(An anti-corruption inquiry was on into the controversial agreement following widespread allegations that it was illegal, motivated by corruption and had, in the long term, seriously compromised public safety.) State police officials said the security labels were printed on at least two premises in the State and one outside. In contrast, the Tamil Nadu government printed its excise seals in its own security press.
Moreover, casual labourers contracted by the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), the State-owned monopoly which controlled liquor wholesale and retail, were employed to affix the labels on the liquor bottles reaching its warehouses across the State from distilleries every day. Surveillance and access control at such warehou ses were, at best, lax. The labels carried the seal and signature of the Excise Commi- ssioner. However, the law had not yet declared any official or entity as the competent authority to affirm whether a security label on a liquor bottle was genuine or not. .
The loophole in law seemed to be to the advantage of bootleggers.
