Bengaluru: Retail dealers of liquor from across the state staged a protest on Tuesday against alleged harassment by excise officials during the Lok Sabha polls in April.While the traders claimed excise officials targeted them and suspended hundreds of licences, a case in point was the licence suspension of B Govindaraja Hedge, also general secretary of Federation of Wine Merchants Association, Karnataka. Hegde owns a retail outlet in Udupi.
“Our main complaint is against corruption in the excise department, which peaked during renewal of licences. Thousands of licences are yet to be renewed and hundreds which were suspended haven’t been reinstated,” said S Guruswamy, president of Federation of Wine Merchants Association, Karnataka.
The protesters gave representations to chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar and excise commissioner V Yashwant.
“They have registered their complaints with us. We will investigate and take appropriate action,” Sanjiv Kumar said.