GUWAHATI: The excise department of Assam has resolved a major issue of sanitizer production in the northeast.
Sanitizers are highly in demand during the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19 across the world. As soon as the coronovirus threat started in the country, the demand for hand sanitizers went up and people started complaining about scarcity.
The Assam excise department then observed that some liquor companies in the United States were manufacturing hand sanitizers and accordingly, in consultation with the health department (which has the highest demand for hand sanitizers presently), decided to produce hand sanitizers.
“11 liquor companies in Assam started producing hand sanitizers and the companies are also producing spirits which are given to other northeastern states for manufacturing sanitization items,” said a senior official of the excise department.
Till now, the excise department has produced around 3,60,000 bottles of hand sanitizers. The bottles were distributed to National Health Mission, Police, Media, Banks and a large consignment of bottles was distributed across the state as part of corporate social responsibility for the liquor companies. But the distribution part is being taken care of by the excise department.
Excise department officials led by the public relation officer to the excise minister, Shailendra Pandey, is reaching out to all the corona warriors of the state and distributing the sanitizers free of cost.
As per the directive of Assam State Excise Minister, Parimal Suklabaidiya, over 5 lakh litres of sanitizers will be supplied free of cost as part of the CSR activities by liquor companies of Assam.
It is to be mentioned that these sanitizers are being produced according to the guidelines set up by World Health Organisation, Essential Commodities Act and Drugs & Cosmetics Act, 1940.
Further, the health department had ordered around 5 crore bottles of 200 ml capacity and the same will be supplied by the excise factories of Assam on absolute free-of-cost basis.
The sanitizers have also priced very low as compared to what is available in the market. Whereas the sanitizer producing companies sell a litre of sanitizer for around Rs 500, the Assam excise department has kept the cost to as low as Rs 160 per litre.