Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday ordered the state’s excise department to start inspections of all liquor shops in the capital, a day after he conducted surprise raids at some stores. Sisodia asked the department to ensure that all shops selling liquor in Delhi were abiding by the terms of the licences granted to them, according to The Indian Express.

In directions issued to the excise department, Sisodia said that he and an inspection team found two liquor shops operating on a single licence during their surprise checks in East Delhi on Monday. “A cursory glance around the area reflects [the] conversion of the entire adjoining areas [into an] open bar by miscreants,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader said, adding that the “conversion” had taken place “in active collusion with…probably department officials and other law-enforcing agencies”.

Sisodia called the consumption of alcohol in public places an “alarming” situation and a “threat to public peace” that also put “the safety of women in peril”. He ordered the department to submit its report on the drive within a week. His order comes after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on August 17 said that no new liquor shops would be allowed to open in the national capital this year, with the fate of existing ones to be decided by the residents of the communities in which they were located.

However, former AAP leader and Swaraj Abhiyan co-founder Prashant Bhushan said the state government’s liquor policy was politically motivated to attract voters before the upcoming Assembly polls in Punjab. He called the policy an eyewash and questioned why opening of liquor stores was suspended for only a year.