OTPs for liquor sale at permit shops come from ‘Gujarat Education’ id!

VADODARA: Many liquor permit holders in the city were surprised when they went to buy liquor at permit shops and received OTPs (one-time password) from the id ‘Gujarat Education’. And this was not just an aberration, but something that happens regularly.
The system of generating OTPs for liquor sales was started by the state prohibition department after there were problems with the previous system of verifying the permit holder using his fingerprint impression.
Fingerprints of senior citizens tend to fade or develop wrinkles and the sensor often does not recognize them leading to frequent confusion.
To take care of this situation, OTPs sent on the registered mobile phone number of a permit holder was used as an alternative means of authenticating his or her identity. The OTP is a five-digit number that has to be entered into the system for the purchase. Strange as it might sound, but permit holders started receiving OTPs from the id ‘Gujarat Education’.
A permit holder said that he received the OTP from the ‘Gujarat Education’ once, but ignored it. “But subsequently, the same thing happened,” he said. It is evident that the messages were not due to a glitch, but were being sent from a server that also sent messages for the education department. Liquor shop owners are also aware of this but have little control over the systems that generate the OTPs.
When asked about the issue, the director of prohibition and excise M A Gandhi said that this might be possible if a partition was made in some other server to facilitate the OTP system. Late on Wednesday afternoon, Gandhi had given instructions for changes.
“For a change, permit holders now get an OTP for procuring liquor. And this is being sent from an ID that is basically that of the education department. Instead of this, people should be educated against consumption of alcohol,” said a person from Surat.