The Kerala government has transferred Excise Commissioner Seeram Sambasiva Rao amid a dispute over bar and horti-wine licences issued while the state’s new liquor policy is being formulated, although Excise Minister M Liju described the move as a routine administrative decision.
An order issued by the General Administration Department relieved Rao of the charge of Excise Commissioner with immediate effect. Rao, who was also serving as Special Secretary in the Electronics and Information Technology Department, has been posted as Special Secretary in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Department. He will additionally hold charge of the Backward Classes Development Department.
The order said the Additional Excise Commissioner (Enforcement) would hold the charge of Excise Commissioner until further orders. The transfer comes after Liju publicly expressed dissatisfaction over licensing decisions taken by officials in the Excise Department.
Three bars in Ernakulam and Kottayam districts were granted licences under the liquor policy of the previous Left Democratic Front government. Liju has maintained that the United Democratic Front government is preparing a new liquor policy and that no licences should be issued under the previous policy until the new framework is finalised.
The minister had suspended two Excise Deputy Commissioners over the granting of the bar licences. He had also objected to a licence issued to a bakery chain based in Chalakudy to sell horti wine, a category permitted under the previous regime. Liju intervened to cancel that licence and transferred the official who had granted it, according to the report.
The developments place administrative decision-making in the excise department at the centre of Kerala’s transition between liquor policies. The licences were issued by officials under the earlier policy, while the minister has said the government is examining a new framework. Liju has announced that the UDF government’s liquor policy will be presented by the end of November.
Responding to questions about Rao’s transfer, Liju rejected a direct link between the move and his dissatisfaction with the department’s functioning. He said transfers of Excise Secretaries and Excise Commissioners were administrative decisions and that the department regularly made such changes. He also said 35 civil servants from different departments had recently been transferred, making the present move the 36th such transfer.
Liju said action had been taken against the Deputy Excise Commissioners because they issued bar licences while the government was formulating a new liquor policy. He also said the government had informed the Kerala High Court that no fresh licences would be issued until the new policy was announced. The Additional Excise Commissioner (Enforcement) will continue as acting Excise Commissioner until further orders.
