To avoid illegal selling of liquor and acids, Delhi Chief Secretary Vijay Dev on Monday chaired meeting and instructing revenue officers to immediately constitute a joint team of area Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) representatives and Delhi Police personnel.

According to a statement from Chief Minister’s office, these joint teams will conduct daily raids and any place found to be selling illegal liquor or not maintaining and DCW will also collect local intelligence through its network of women and identify the shops that were selling acid which could then be raided.

“We are strictly against the open sale of acid and shall take all measures to stop it. I have directed all SDMs and Police officials to practice zero tolerance against the open sale of acid. We will leave no stone unturned for achieving an acid free Delhi,” said Dev.

“This would be a ten days special drive of the Delhi Government and similar drives will be conducted on a regular basis,” he said further.

 In past few days, joint team of SDM, DCW and Delhi Police conducted 100 raids and issued challans of over Rs 7 Lakh. The team also seized over 1000 litres of concentrated acid by posing as decoy customers.

In  one visit the team seized over 240 litres from one small shop. “The acid was being sold openly and the shopkeeper even prodded the team to buy larger amounts. In another raid, over 250 litres were seized by the team in Najafgarh sub-division area. Here too, the acid was being sold without any deterrence”, said an official.

“ In almost all shops no records of acid stored in the shops were maintained which is in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines and orders of the Delhi Government. The raids were conducted all over Delhi in over 24 sub-divisions,” the official added. 

Meanwhile, Maliwal applauded the Chief Secretary for taking this initiative and stated, “Illegal sale of acid and more importantly easy availability of concentrated acid in the open market is a serious issue affecting Delhi.