Spirit, spirituality in temple town

Tirupati: The spiritual city of Tirupati is steeped in drunken stupor. Liquor shops in Tirupati are open around the clock by violating all the stipulated norms and the tipplers are taking full advantage of the situation. Political pressures are forcing the prohibition and excise department for keeping mum and the civic society has been demanding the government to enforce complete ban on liquor sales in the temple city to maintain its sanctity.

Liquor shops in the temple city have formed a syndicate and are looting the customers with additional charge of '10 for each bottle on Maximum Retail Price (MRP). The excise officials who should monitor the maintenance of MRP were least bothered about the violations of   rules and never attempted to conduct surprise checks on the shops. According to social activist M. Gopal Reddy of Tirupati, the  syndicate operators  colluded with politicos and due to pressure  from them the excise officials  dared  not  book cases on the wine  shops which were selling liquor more than MRP.

According to rules framed by the government the liquor shops by paying the prescribed fee can set up permit rooms and the room size should be not more than 50 sq.ft. Cooking of food should not take place in that area. The customers can have a drink and should leave the place. But in the temple city, majority of wine shops are running on huge seating area and some of them are having attached dhabas with complete food facility.

Several wine shops have even three storied buildings with open terrace seating arrangements for the convenience of the drinkers. Even in residential areas like NGO’s colony, Santhi  Nagar, Bhavani Nagar, Balaji colony liquor shops can be found in large  numbers with tipplers  moving about  in inebriated condition. There are as many as six liquor shops with attached dhabas and restaurants on the Karkambadi road in a short gap of two km. At  Annarao circle in the city, three wine shops are located adjacent to  each other with seating arrangements in three storied buildings.

The rules also stipulate  the liquor shops should operate between  10am-10pm. The bars can be opened till 11pm. Despite the rules are in force no wine shop in Tirupati is following them. Anyone can get liquor even at odd hours as the wine shops were half closed or  operated from backdoors  even after closure in the night.