Excise officials told to remove belt shops

Eluru: West Godavari district collector K Bhaskar reiterated that the Excise officials would be held responsible, if belt shops were found in the district. He instructed the officials to register criminal cases on the organisers of belts shops.

He conducted Mee Kosam weekly programme on public grievances at collectorate, here on Monday.

Gubbala Satyavati, Gangaratnam, Anantalakshmi and other women from Uttarapalem village of Koderu panchayat in Achanta mandal complained to the collector that three belt shops were ruining their village. Apart from that drunkards were posing a threat to women. They also told the collector that the belt shop organisers were giving loans to youth to get liquor from the shops which was leading to addiction of liquor.

Fuming over Excise officials, the collector questioned whether the district was on the way to become arrack-free. He directed the officials to immediately remove those belt shops.