Bhubaneswar: Strengthening enforcement activities in the wake of the Ganjam hooch tragedy, Odisha Excise Department is likely to set up 25 new excise stations to check illegal liquor supply and sale across the state. 

A proposal in this regard will be sent to the Excise department to strictly deal with excise-related issues like cross-border infiltration of illegal transport, storage, sale of liquor, illicit distillation, and other NDPS items. 

Proposal for opening 25 new excise stations in the following districts: 

Before submitting the proposal, the Excise Joint Commissioner has asked concerned superitendents to examine the feasibility for opening of new excise stations based on geographical size of existing excise station, inaccessibility of the far-flung areas, vulnerability to ID liquor distillation and supply from neighboring district/state, vaccum area existing within the present Excise Station area, number of cases detected, number of accused arrested, quantity of seizure of ID liquor, number of ID pockets busted during last financial years 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24. 

In this connection, a meeting will be held with excise superientdents at 5.00 PM on September 4, 2024 on virtual mode.