Goa govt to introduce holograms to curb illegal liquor trade: Chief minister

Porvorim: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday said that a system of holograms will be introduced in Goa to help identify and stop illicit liquor trade in the state. His statement came after govt was heavily criticised in the assembly over an incident of a truck carrying liquor that overturned and caught fire on the highway at Dhargalim last month.Opposition MLAs asked whether “duplicate alcohol” is being manufactured in Goa and how the truck entered the state by passing the border checkpost. Sawant admitted that no entry of vehicle was found at the checkpost. “No duplicate alcohol is being manufactured in Goa. We will use hologram tech in the future, which allows us to scan and get all the information about the alcohol,” said Sawant.The opposition criticised govt’s failure to identify the origin of the liquor consignment even though the incident occurred on June 17.

“The driver, cleaner, and others left the vehicle and ran away. Why are police and excise officials ignoring the incident? We know that illegal alcohol business is taking place in Goa,” said Benaulim MLA Venzy Veigas.The CM said that the PI and the excise inspector reached the spot once the fire was reported and seized whatever alcohol was still intact. “Based on the collected labels, investigations are on. They transport this alcohol with no export licence, no permit.

Till now, we have not been able to verify where it was manufactured,” said Sawant. He added that the vehicle was from Nagaland. “We have written to Nagaland govt, but we have not received a response yet.

Our team has gone to Delhi and Haryana already in the case,” Sawant said.Leader of opposition Yuri Alemao said that although 1,395 cases of violations in liquor trade were found in Goa, state govt has initiated action against only two inspectors. “Only show cause notices have been issued. You need to seriously look into the lapse,” said Alemao.