For the first time in the country, dogs will be used to stop smuggling of spurious and illegal liquor, Punjab’s plan ready

Amit Pandey

Punjab Excise Department Dog Squad For Liquor Smuggling: The Excise Department of Punjab is going to do something which will be done for the first time in the entire country to stop smuggling of spurious and illegal liquor. Actually, the Excise Department of Punjab is going to form a dog squad to stop smuggling of spurious and illegal liquor. With the help of the dogs of this dog squad, it will be easier for the department to find out where the spurious liquor is being manufactured or in which vehicles it is being smuggled. This dog squad will be present on the spot even during checking. For this, first of all a team of 3 dogs has been formed which will be run by 12 handlers. These dogs have been given training for 3 months.

Dogs Squad Training

The Finance Minister of Punjab and the team of Excise Department reached the training center of Punjab Dogs Squad located in Derabassi, where they saw how these dogs find hidden raw liquor.

Why did the government decide to create a dogs squad?

News 24 Speaking exclusively to PTI, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that wherever in Punjab, people make liquor illegally and bury it in fields or under the ground. It takes time to extract it and sometimes the smugglers run away. In such a situation, the government decided to make dog squads and buy them. So that the smugglers can be caught as soon as possible. It has been seen many times that people lose their lives due to drinking spurious liquor, so we have taken steps to stop it.

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Finance Minister Harpal Singh Jeevan said that this squad will be included in the department in the coming days and the government will try to completely eliminate spurious liquor and smuggling in the coming days.

Lakhs spent on dogs squad

Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the current team of three dogs and 12 handlers will cost around Rs 40 to 50 lakh annually, which will be provided by the department. Newton Sidhu, who trained this dog squad, said that these dogs have been trained for 6 months and they are Belgian Malinois breed dogs, they work for 8 hours a day. During training, these dogs had caught 3 lakh liters of spurious and raw liquor. These dogs are given very specific training.

liquor smuggling

Sidhu said that for the first time such training is being given in the country to detect liquor smuggling. He told that he has also received requests from other states but he has first formed such a dog squad for the Punjab government. Many challenges came up during the training because the smell of raw liquor keeps changing in every area and every day, in such a situation the Excise Department helped us. He used to bring us samples and on the basis of that we have given him training.