Rs 10 is all that you pay to evade border post checking!

Rs 10 is all that you pay to evade border post checking!
VIBHA VERMA
PANJIM, DEC 27
Just a ten rupee note is what you want to smuggle liquor in and out of Goa, thanks to the Excise personnel on check posts at Dodamarg and Patradevi.
In a shocking finding, this reporter on visit to Dodamarg and one of major check-posts Patradevi in North Goa on December 25-26 saw excise officials being bribed by inter-state and truck drivers to evade checking.
At Patradevi, this reporter took two trips and saw that the drivers would stop their vehicles near the check-post, get down from the vehicle and pay ten rupee notes at the ‘excise check-post counter’.
This reporter also walked through the area and found that drivers would pay amount as little as Rs 10 to Rs 50 at the counter and just drive-off without getting their vehicles checked. The counter had a person who would collect the money and store it in their treasure box.
It was also seen that while others were in uniform, there was one man in civil clothes who at times would approach the halted-vehicle, have conversion and collect the money.
But there were also occasions when trucks were being checked, but that seemed only for name sake. The trucks would not be checked thoroughly.
While at Dodamarg, the excise-team would show a care-a-damn attitude and let off the vehicles without being checked. The vehicles would be stopped and a checking official would go closer to the driver.
But it was not clearly seen whether they were taking bribe, as also the reporter was stopped from taking photographs. When this reporter raised the camera to shoot a picture, a panicky excise official rushed to stop from doing it.
“Photo kitak gheta (why are you clicking pictures),” asked an excise official to this reporter. However when the reporter rebelled that there was no board prohibiting anyone from clicking pictures, the personnel asked to meet his ‘saheb’ who was inside the office.
Interestingly, the team also sent a man behind this reporter to chase till a few meters away to ensure that no photograph was clicked.
Excise Commissioner P S Reddy, when contacted, refused to speak clear on the issue. “Study the Excise rules…there are certain rules to carry out checking of a vehicle,” was his reply.
It may be recalled that Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar made a noise in the recent Assembly Session that liquors were being smuggled from the State and raising apprehensions that the money was used to fund terror outfits.
He had also demanded a ‘full fledged criminal inquiry by the Central Bureau of investigation.’ Parrikar had also alleged involvement of Excise officials in the scam.