High 5!

Excise dept gladdens thirsty souls by declaring October 22, the day of election results, will only be a dry day till 5 pmu00a0u00a0

The Excise Department has given political parties a reason to cheer by declaring October 22 - the date when the results for the Assembly elections will be announcedu00a0- will cease to be a dry day after 5 pm. Winners and their supporters, will now be able to raise a toast on the same eveningu00a0 u2013 the sixth dry day of this month.

"As a precaution, we had already asked traders, bars and pubs in the city to hand over their daily registers of sales from September 15 to October 15 to us. Though no wine shops were found flouting the law, many traders had stocked up liquor in their cars and homes.

We also seized two auto rickshaws, a scooter, a bicycle, and a Santro and a Maruti 800 that were being used to stock and sellu00a0 liquor," said the Mumbai superintendent of the Maharashtra State Excise Department, who did not want to be named.

Rubbish
A liquor seller from Andheri said the Excise Department should have declared fewer dry days.
"This dry day business is absolutely rubbish. People addicted to alcohol, need their favourite brands everyday.

If they don't, they have no choice but to go through mediators who will charge them extra. Why does the government have to do this? They could have easily reduced the number of dry days," he said, adding that he did not want to named as he had also sold liquor on the dry days.

Dry days in Oct
Oct 2 and 8: Prohibition week
Oct 11, 12 and 13: Election days
Oct 22: Counting day

5 The number of dry days in the first 12 days of October
200 Number of cases of illegal sale of liquor registered by the Maharashtra State Excise Department in the same periodu00a0u00a0
17 lakh Value of liquor seized by the Excise Department