Vijayawada: Many bars and liquor shops which are near the National and State Highways were closed with the enforcement of Supreme Court guidelines.
In addition to this, even the new liquor policy in the state is being implemented from today. As there was shortage of stock as the new batch numbers are yet to be labelled, the bars are witnessing huge crowds as many of the liquor shops remained closed for these two reasons.
According to the Supreme Court guidelines, bar shops should be located 500 meters away from the National and State Highways where the population is more than 20,000, and should be 200 meters away when the population is below 20,000 in the nearby areas.
Accordingly, the state government had made changes to the liquor policy. The state government in this regard selected the liquor shops based on lottery system in March. The select shops which are to be opened from July 1, will be operating according to the Supreme Court guidelines.
In almost in all the districts, the National and State Highways are running internally through the cities rather than from outside. With this, almost 80 per cent of liquor shops are less than 500 and 200 meters in the cities and were made to close down.
In fact, there is a proposal that the National and State Highways passing through municipalities, and corporations are to be considered as civic roads under the respective civic bodies and the roads which are outside the city, bypass and outer ring roads are to be considered as National and State Highways. This system is implemented in a few states while others are yet to take decision on it.
However. even the new liquor policy had mentioned about considering the National and State Highways passing through municipalities, and corporations as civic roads under the respective civic bodies.
But due to lack of proper coordination between the R and B and excise departments, the roads have not been denotified as civic roads. The liquor shops associations though requested the government on this issue, it had ignored them, though it impacts the excise department’s revenue to the government.
A. Krishna Reddy, a liquor merchant said, “We shall follow the Supreme Court guidelines at any cost and at the same time, if the shops are to be 500 meters away from highways, they are entering the residential areas with which we are facing severe resistance from the residents to open the shops.” He further said there is also a rule that the shops shouldn’t be established near the schools or temples, but these days every lane has a school or a temple.”
Another liquor merchant lambasted the excise department as they are just looking at their revenue but aren’t considering their problems. The excise department is even showing negligence in denotifying the National and State Highways passing through cities. He appealed the state government to look into the matter.
In Krishna district alone, 350 wine shops and 120 bars have been closed as the National and State Highways have not been denotified.
With only 100 licenced shops available, boozers with shortage of liquor and liquor merchants with no business are suffering.
