E -auction of Liquor shops Bidding process to begin today, excise department cancels leaves of officials

Govt defends policy, says will end monopoly

Jammu: Amid protest and demonstration by the Jammu Wine Traders Association (JWTA) against the Draft Excise policy 2021-22, the Jammu and Kashmir Excise Department all set to start bidding process of liquor shops in phased manner and canceled sanctioned leaves of employees to ensure smooth process.

The Jammu and Kashmir, Excise Commissioner, Rahul Sharma, has also issued alert notice to apprise the public and prospective bidders not to pay heed to any misleading information being floated in the public domain.

He also apprised them to go through the department website for a factual report.

The JK Excise Department’s Alert Notice came to fore a day after JWTA accused of administration led by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for harassing people of Jammu.

Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Excise Department issued notification for e- auctioning of the liquor.

“In response to numerous queries, is to inform all the prospective bidders that all bidding locations are now visible on e-auction portal jkexcisedept.auctiontiger.net and will be live for biddings starting from tomorrow 9 am as per schedule. For more information and clarification please log in to jkexcise.nic.in

Further, to smoothen the e auctioning process, the Excise Department has also ordered the cancellation of the leaves already sanctioned in favour of their employees.

“ In view of the urgency and importance of e-auction, it is hereby directed that all the officers and officials shall remain present n their respective offices irrespective of holidays and Sundays.All the leaves already sanctioned stands cancelled, unless permitted so, by the competent authority till further order. It is further directed that all the officers shall ensure that they are available 24x7 on phone and Whatsapp group,” reads the order issued by excise department.

Pertinently the wine traders in Jammu are up in arms against the government’s fresh draft policy to allow liquor vends in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Draft Excise policy 2021-22 has spelt out to allot liquor vends through an e-auction, which the wine traders of Jammu and Kashmir say would eliminate local businesspersons from the trade and would benefit only rich capitalists from outside J&K.

After the government announced the policy early this month, the wine traders have been lodging protests, meeting senior BJP functionaries asking for the reversal of the policy.

Defending new excise policy , Excise Commissioner Rahul Sharma said that the new policy as "transparent" and said e-bidding for liquor licenses was introduced to end monopoly.
In an advertisement in a local daily, Sharma highlighted various points of the new policy and also tried to allay apprehensions of the wine traders that people from outside the Union Territory would be accommodated and provided contracts under the garb of the new policy.
"The e-bidding for liquor licenses is confined to the domiciles of J&K only and it will therefore provide employment only to locals. It ends monopoly," Sharma said, adding equal opportunity to all has been provided to participate in the e-auction process for allotment of liquor licenses and to stop perpetual transfers within family.
"One individual-one vend will restrict the practice of monopoly. Solvency certificate of immovable property equivalent to bid amount provides due safeguard that only residents of J&K can participate. Further, it will also check proxy and speculative bidding," he said.
The excise commissioner said the new policy is only an attempt to implement law of the land and judgments of the high court. "The new policy is completely transparent and no functionary in UT can favour or disfavour any prospective bidder. It ends favoritism."
Sharma said auction of liquor vends only on existing locations which have been functioning for past many years ensures that public sentiments are fully taken into account.
The Jammu Wine Traders Association (JWTA) accused the excise department of misleading the public through the advertisement and challenged it to justify each point before them.
"The new policy is full of flaws and is a death knell for the Jammu wine traders who cannot compete in e-auction to save their decades old business the high court judgment clearly mentions that the renewal of license of the trade in liquor is permissible under law," JWTA member Devender Singh told reporters here.
He said the department is boasting of transparency, "which cannot be guaranteed as in 2005 one of its own employees was involved in the fraud during the introduction of the e-lottery system".
"The department is speaking about ending monopoly. By the new policy, a family can manage to get multiple licenses. The solvency certificate is only meant to safeguard the government revenue instead of providing safeguards to a trader, who, in case of any untoward incident, cannot transfer the license to his or her family member," he said.
Traders Federation president Deepak Gupta extended his support to the agitating wine traders and urged Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and Union Minister Jitendra Singh to personally look into their demands and safeguard their livelihood by reviewing the new policy.
Hundreds of wine traders are on streets over the past one month in protest against e-auction of liquor vends under the new excise policy.
The JWTA said 30,000 families are directly or indirectly involved in earning their livelihood from this business and most of the present licensees are widows, senior citizens and unemployed youth who have no other source of income.