File picture of a liquor shop in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, July 30: The state cabinet today decided to postpone e-auctioning of the Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) off-shops and country spirit shops till March 31, 2015. The cabinet has failed to set out modalities for the e-auctioning.

Sources said the government had decided for auctioning of the existing IMFL off-shops, including those of country spirit in 2012.

However, the existing vendors had approached Orissa High Court against the government decision. Later, the court struck down the order of the state government.

Challenging the high court’s order, the state government had filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court. The apex court had upheld the state government’s decision for e-auctioning, but with some stipulations.

The Supreme Court had asked the Odisha government to formalise the e-auction process within three months.

“Since modalities for e-auctioning could not be finalised, it has been extended till the end of the financial year,” said a senior official.

The state cabinet also approved a plan to bring professionals from the open market for the Odisha State Beverage Corporation (OSBC).

“As the OSBC is doing an annual business transaction of nearly Rs 3,000 crore, it needs professionals. Keeping it in mind, we have decided to bring professionals for five posts that included the post of the chief executive officer,” said a senior official.

In order to fill up the vacancies in other categories, the state cabinet today decided to draw staff members from the other government public sector undertakings.

In yet another decision, the state government today decided to rationalise the forest development tax. It approved to slash down the forest development tax on kendu leaves from 16 per cent to 2 per cent.

The decision is expected to benefit as many as nine lakh kendu leave-pluckers of the state.

The state cabinet, which was presided by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, today decided to give more powers to the district judges, so that the number of cases in the high court will be reduced.

The district judge, who could earlier decide money suits with compensation up to Rs 5 lakh will now be eligible to hear cases worth compensation to the tune of Rs 10 lakh.