Khammam: Lockdown turned out boon to liquor smugglers
Tamil Nadu liquor flows in Andhra Pradesh border villages
Khammam: If lockdown brought misery to many, it also turned out a chance for others to earn easy money by transporting Telangana liquor to Andhra Pradesh and selling at high prices.
The Andhra Pradesh government has increased liquor prices up to 75 per cent than MRP while the Telangana government has increased only 25 per cent. Making the most of the hiked liquor rates, people transported liquor from Telangana border villages wine shops to villages and towns in Andhra border.
The border police seized liquor worth lakhs of rupees, smuggled from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh during the lockdown. Meanwhile, boozers of AP descended on Telangana border wine shops due to the low prices.
According to Telangana excise officials, liquor sales were increased in the wine shops on Andhra-Telangana border villages by 30 per cent for the last few days. Most of the border shops witnessed heavy rush with the AP people only.
Though there were instructions that buyers must show Aadhar card to wine shop sellers to purchase liquor, some people of AP State allegedly offered extra money and bought liquor.
Check posts set up at border points are reportedly functioning for namesake and there was no thorough checking and vigil on illegal liquor transportation from Telangana to Andhra. There are many ways to reach Andhra from Telangana and the smugglers are using these roads to transport liquor to sell it in belt shops in Andhra Pradesh.
According to sources, liquor is being transported from Aswaraopet, Dammapet, Vemsoor, Sattupalli, Bhadrachalam and Mulakalapalli mandals, which are very close to Andhra border. K Bhaskar of Aswaraopet mandal headquarters said every day huge quantities of liquor were crossed borders, but no one is checking. Some people made it big and earned huge money during lockdown period.
Kothagudem district Excise Superintendent D Narasimha Reddy said that there are two check posts at Bhadrachalam and Aswaraopet and the police are not allowing any such illegal liquor transportation. He assured of taking strict action if they found out this type of activities.