
Barpeta District Magistrate Nabadeep Pathak, ACS, has made prior registration with the district administration mandatory for the storage, transportation, sale, purchase and trade of liquid molasses and molasses powder.
The order is aimed at preventing the diversion and misuse of molasses for the illegal manufacture of country liquor and illicit or spurious liquor, which the administration says pose serious risks to public health and safety.
All traders, wholesalers, retailers, transporters and other business entities dealing in these commodities must complete registration within 15 days of the order's issuance.
The compulsory registration gives Barpeta district a direct administrative handle on every link of the molasses supply chain, from storage to retail. This closure of an unregulated channel is the enforcement layer behind Assam's repeated crackdowns on illicit liquor, making diversion harder to hide. The 15-day deadline forces existing businesses to come forward quickly, and the administration will now have a paper trail to trace any future diversion. What the order does not specify is the penalty for trading without registration, which will be the actual measure of its teeth. Enforcement will be tested in the weeks after the deadline, when authorities act against any non-compliant entity.
Source: sentinelassam.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Methodology and corrections.