Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 6: Charanjit Singh, former president of Jammu Wine Traders Association (JWTA) has urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Financial Commissioner (Finance Department) Arun Mehta to utilize Rs 4-5 crore of wine traders’ share of Social Responsibility Corps for COVID management measures.
In a statement, Charanjit Singh said the Social Responsibility Corps from the traders and the Government stand between Rs 6.5 crore to Rs 7 crore.
Of this amount, there is Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore share of the wine traders.
“I urge the Lieutenant Governor and the Financial Commissioner Finance to utilize our share of Social Responsibility Corps for COVID control measures wherever the Government deems it necessary,” Charanjit Singh said.
He hoped that this amount will help the Government to some extent to contain COVID-19 in Jammu and Kashmir.
Singh further said that the Excise Department has completely failed in implementation of new excise policy as till date, the amount Rs 140 crores which department had claimed to collect through e-auction, has not yet been deposited and the amount is only in numbers.
He said as per the policy, each bidder had to deposit the bid amount within seven days from the last day of bid but till date the amount has not been deposited and the successful bidders have been given continuous extension. “It is a big failure on the part of department and shows that someone must has vested interest in the implementation of this policy thereby snatching the livelihood of the old licenses,” he added.
“Excise department has always claimed that the purpose of implementation of new excise policy is to abolish the monopoly system but the e-auction has shown that it has created the monopoly and mafia system in our UT,” he alleged.
Singh said earlier, the department used to claim that some people have multiple licenses but after the process of e-auction, it has been clear that big fishes have openly participated in the auction process and each party has more than 30 licenses, on the name of their relatives, salesman, friends, etc and more than 100 outsiders have used the proxy documents of the local people to participate in the e-auction process.
He requested the department that a detailed enquiry be carried out to bring the clear picture in front of the people of J&K. He demanded immediate cancellation of the new policy and implementation of old licensee system.
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