The General Administration Department ordered Rao’s immediate removal from the excise post and appointed him Special Secretary in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Department. He will additionally oversee the Backward Classes Development Department. The Additional Excise Commissioner (Enforcement) will manage the commissioner’s responsibilities until further orders.
The decision followed Liju’s public criticism of licences granted to lounges at Kochi international airport and other establishments while the United Democratic Front government was preparing a revised liquor policy. The minister maintained that officials should have consulted the government before approving applications involving a politically sensitive policy decision.
Liju described the transfer as a routine administrative measure rather than an exceptional intervention. He pointed to transfers involving about 35 other officials and said changes in official postings were not unusual. His remarks stopped short of identifying the licensing controversy as the formal reason for Rao’s reassignment.
The airport dispute centred on two FL-7 licences issued in June for lounges serving passengers at the airport in Nedumbassery. Liju said the commissioner possessed statutory authority to grant such licences but had acted without informing the government of the decisions.
A further application had been referred to the government, which indicated that a decision should await the new excise policy. The minister subsequently questioned why proceedings on another application continued despite that communication. He sought an explanation from Rao over the handling of the approvals.
The commissioner’s explanation maintained that the licences concerned passenger facilities and fell within his authority. He also indicated that he had not seen an instruction conveyed by the department in August concerning the handling of applications. Liju rejected the explanation as inadequate and questioned how an official communication could have escaped the commissioner’s attention.
Rao had denied acting unlawfully and maintained that he was processing files efficiently. He also rejected suggestions of a personal conflict with the minister. His defence highlighted a distinction between powers available to licensing authorities under existing rules and the government’s intention to suspend fresh approvals pending a policy review.
The dispute extended beyond the airport. Liju had expressed dissatisfaction over three bar licences issued in Ernakulam and Kottayam districts under provisions introduced by the previous Left Democratic Front administration. Two Deputy Excise Commissioners were suspended in connection with those decisions.
Under the earlier framework, qualifying beer-and-wine parlours could obtain bar licences after meeting prescribed hotel classification requirements. The minister argued that the arrangement allowed decisions to be taken at the departmental level without sufficient oversight from the elected government.
Liju also intervened after a licence was granted to a Chalakudy-based bakery business to sell horticultural wine. The permission was cancelled and the official responsible was transferred. The case added to questions about how existing licensing provisions should operate while the administration prepared its replacement policy.
Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan had separately stressed that the government should be informed before bar licences were approved. The administration’s position has been that fresh permissions should await the policy expected by the end of November, rather than proceed automatically under arrangements inherited from its predecessor.
The controversy has also raised practical questions over licences already issued. Administrative action against officials does not itself establish that an approval was unlawful or automatically invalidate a licence. Any cancellation would have to rest on the applicable rules and the circumstances of the individual permission.
(The article ‘Excise chief shunted out in bar licence dispute’ appeared first on Free Press Journal.)
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