EC to keep check on liquor flow during polls

The women’s organisations are gearing up to keep a vigil against flow of liquor during the ensuing general elections.

A delegation from the Visakhapatnam-based NGO, Chaitanya Sravanthi, met the CEO Bhanwar Lal at the Secretariat here on Wednesday, and urged him to pre-empt possible impact of liquor in elections and ensure close of belt shops in the State.

Dr. Shireen Rehman, president of Chaitanya Sravanthi and Dr. B.Ratna Kumari, Director, Centre for Women’s Studies, Andhra University, who led the delegation also submitted a resolution adopted at a round table held at Andhra University recently on controlling the influence of liquor during elections.

Mr. Bhanwar Lal assured the delegation that the Election Commission had already issued instructions to take steps for curbing influence of liquor during elections and every effort would be made to close down the belt shops.

The Election Commission would also keep a watch on the sale of liquor during the coming months through the AP Beverages Corporation, he said. The Election Commission would appreciate if people’s organisations kept a watch on illegal activities of liquor shops and inform the election commission, he said.

Ban sought

The delegation represented that besides closure of belt shops, the Government should ban the sale of liquor immediately after releasing the election notification and take steps to control bulk purchase of liquor.