Criminal cases would be registered against illicit liquor brewers under Preventive Detention (PD) Act.

The district collector, Mr V. Durgadas, conducted a meeting with excise, police and revenue officials at his camp office here on Wednesday.

He enquired with the excise deputy commissioner, Mr M. Devakumar, about illicit liquor manufacturers and their dens where they brew the liquor.

Mr Devakumar said that they have identified 261 illicit liquor centres in the district and they were classified into A, B and C.

He added that there are 72 each in A and B classes and 116 centres in C class.

In all, 4,542 cases were booked and 1,339 persons were arrested apart from seizing 30,167 litres of liquor and destroying 15,46,315 litres of hooch under preparation, the official said.

Mr Devakumar said that the officials have seized 63 vehicles apart from booking bind-over cases against 193 persons.

The collector expressed dissatisfaction saying, “though the excise department was acting tough against the hooch trade, the results were not upto the mark.”

He directed the officials to go on with unrelenting raids to contain illicit liquor brewing.

He also directed the excise officials to keep an eye on illicit liquor flowing from neighbouring districts with the help of police department.

Mr Durgadas told the officials to book cases under PD Act against the people involved in illicit liquor brewing and trade.

The excise functionaries were also told to keep an eye on dabas on the highways apart from booking bindover cases against the habitual offenders.

The joint collector, Ms Anita Ramachandran, excise official, Mr Satyaprasad, administration superintendent of police, Mr Sivaiah, Dharmavaram RDO, Mr Prabhakar Pillai, and collectorate superintendent, Mr Ravindra, were present at the meeting.