Archaic excise laws mock at system 
Shariq Majeed and Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Sangrur/ Bathinda, January 3
If excise laws in the state were to be followed in letter and in spirit, sale of liquor is sure to come down by at least 50 per cent.
The Excise Department is following the Punjab Intoxicants Licence and Sales Order-1956 Act that contains many anomalies. Though there is a law, which states that liquor cannot be given to any person under 25 years of age, yet hordes of youth can be seen buying it.
Under the Section: “Rules prohibiting the sale of liquor to certain persons and classes of person”, there is a clause that reads: A licencee (a liquor-vend owner) cannot sell liquor to “any person whom he knows or has reason to believe to be a policeman, excise officer or railway servant on duty.” If the excise officials follow this law, no policeman in uniform can buy liquor from any vend across the state. Moreover, the excise officials themselves cannot purchase liquor. The railway employees also come under the same category. However, the policemen and railway officials are openly flouting the rules.
The next clause states that the liquor cannot be sold to “any person in custody or under escort of the police.” At vends located near the district courts at both Sangrur and Bathinda, it has been seen many times that the policemen accompanying the undertrials often purchase liquor from these shops.
The next clause pertains to selling of the liquor to “any person who is in a state of intoxication.” The sources disclose that 40 per cent of the people visiting vends between 11 am and 8 pm are already drunk.
These are just a few of the rules that openly mock at the system. Till they are redrafted, Bacchus lovers can have a field day.