The Excise Department has released stocks of illicit spirit to public entities to produce hand sanitisers to meet the frantic demand triggered by the COVID-19 threat.
It has freed up hundreds of litres of 70% and above proof extra neutral alcohol from its custody and made the spirit available to the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, to make the direly needed sanitising fluid. The college has garnered considerable experience in making sanitising liquid for doctors and paramedics during the Nipah outbreak in 2018.
Excise Range, Thiruvananthapuram, has supplied the spirit on the direction of Commissioner of Excise S. Aananthakrishnan.
Officials said they would also provide seized contraband to the Kerala State Drugs & Pharmaceuticals (KSDP) to make hand sanitisers for the public.
The government has tasked the public sector unit to manufacture the sanitising liquid in trade quantities to tide over the current scarcity. The KSDP has promised the government to supply scented and bottled hand sanitiser at a quarter of the market price to the State. The State plans to make it available to the public at a nominal cost through government agencies and public offices. On March 12, the Central government brought hand sanitiser and face masks under the Essential Commodities Act.
