Excise officials have intensified raids on illicit Gudumba manufacturing units in parts of the erstwhile Karimnagar district ahead of the Dasara festival, destroying illegal liquor and jaggery beverage stocks in Manthani, Ramagiri, Jagtial and Rajanna-Sircilla areas.
The enforcement action has focused on interior locations where the production of Gudumba, an illicitly distilled liquor, has increased in the run-up to the festival. Officials have identified Manthani and Ramagiri mandals as key activity areas, while Sarangapur and Birpur mandals have emerged as hotspots in Jagtial district.
On October 3, excise police raided a unit on the outskirts of Manthani and destroyed 2,000 litres of jaggery beverage, according to the report. On October 8, raids at Boinpet and Bokkalavagu, also on the outskirts of Manthani, resulted in the destruction of 20 litres of Gudumba and 1,200 litres of jaggery juice.
Excise police have also conducted raids on Gudumba production units in Rajanna-Sircilla district. The department has not indicated in the supplied report how many arrests or criminal cases have resulted from the latest raids.
District prohibition and excise officer for Peddapalli, S. Srinivasa Murthy, said enforcement activity had been affected for two months because of transfers of officers and staff. Newly inducted sub-inspectors were also undergoing training during this period, weakening vigilance, he said.
Murthy said the department had resumed raids after receiving information about illicit liquor distillation. He added that some people were producing Gudumba for personal consumption as well as for supply to villagers.
According to excise department sources, poor people and people engaged in hard physical labour often prefer Gudumba because it is cheaper than Indian-made foreign liquor. The price difference has helped sustain demand in rural areas, while the distributed nature of production makes enforcement dependent on local information and repeated field raids.
The latest action highlights the administrative challenge of controlling illicit liquor production across dispersed rural settlements. Officials are continuing to identify manufacturing units and destroy prepared liquor, jaggery beverage and related material when raids are conducted. The department’s next steps will depend on further intelligence-led operations across the identified hotspots.
