Excise dept seeks to have own vehicles

HYDERABAD:The excise department too is likely to have own vehicles on a par with the police department shortly.Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat here on Wednesday after launching a new year diary brought out by the Excise Officers Association, excise minister T Padma Rao Goud said they had requested chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to allow the department to purchase new vehicles.

“The excise department collected `400 crore through the sale of applications for licences for new liquor shops. We have requested the chief minister to allocate a part of that amount for purchase of new vehicles for our staff,” Goud said and claimed that Telangana was the first state in the country to be declared ID liquor-free state. Principal secretary (excise) Somesh Kumar and Telangana State Beverages Corporation Limited chairman Devi Prasad Rao were present.