The Jharkhand government’s notification making it mandatory for desi liquor to be sold in bottles rather than polythene bags has rattled the small-time manufacturers.Given time till the end of this year to fall in line by the Excise Department, Ashok Kumar is furious. ‘‘We cater to poor customers,’’ he says, ‘‘who will not be able to bear the extra cost of the bottle.’’However, the government justifies its move by pointing out that more than 30 people have died in the past five years owing to two hooch tragedies. ‘‘Making liquor by using the deadly methyl alcohol is rampant. Since it was earlier sold in plastic bags, the identity of the manufacturer was difficult to ascertain. This will not be so with bottles,’’ says a senior officer of the Excise Department.Kumar and his fellow manufacturers have been brewing and selling country liquor in polythene bags since the 1970s. These days, most of his time is spent sending letters to bottle makers, requisitioning quotations for bottles of sizes ranging from 200 ml to 750 ml.Ram Awadhesh Sharma, another vendor, says: ‘‘Right now we transport country liquor in polythene bags to interior areas on cycles and bullock carts. This will not be so easy with bottles.’’Jharkhand has five registered companies with licence to manufacture country liquor. While the department collects an annual revenue of Rs 125 crore from overall sales of liquor, the share of country liquor is less than 10 per cent, according to an estimate. ‘‘The move to discard polythene bags is part of our department’s plan to increase the revenue,’’ says Deputy Commissioner Ranjit Singh, explaining that the use of bottles will help them regulate sales better.Excise Minister Baidhnath Ram, currently on a tour of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu ‘‘to study their systems of revenue collection’’, has hinted that the excise policy for Jharkhand will be a ‘‘mix’’ of rules followed in these states.
