As many as 33 liquor shops within 500 metre of the National Highways and the State Highways in Sundargarh district had been sealed since April 1. However, in a bid to avoid loss and under a liquor lobby, the Odisha Government has changed the name of State Highways to Urban Roads recently.
The aim is to reopen the closed liquor shops at the same spots.
Meanwhile, 14 liquor shops out of 33 closed till now have reopened in district.
The Supreme Court on December 15, 2016 had ordered a ban on sale of liquor n shops located within 500 meters from the highways and had directed that the liquor shops should be shifted and their licences could not be renewed after March 31, 2017. The decision was taken to reduce drunken driving and road accidents that claim thousands of lives every year.
The Odisha Government had decided to relocate liquor shops within 500 metres of the NHs and SHs by April1. A decision in this regard had been taken in January in a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Secretary AP Padhi. The Chief Secretary had directed the Excise and Works departments to work together for identifying the liquor shops which are operating within 500 metres of the highways and complete the process in 15 days to one month. As per the direction, the Excise Superintendent of Sundargarh district along with the Works Department had started to identify liquor shops operating within 500 meters of the highways in the district and accordingly 33 liquor shops, selling country and foreign liquor, had been identified and were sealed since April 1, 2017.
After the closure of these shops, the State Government however noticed a loss of about Rs 3 crore as revenue and in a bid to avoid the loss, the cunning step was taken.
The Sundargarh (R and B) Division recently received an order from Chief Engineer (DPI and Roads), mentioning that road sections of the Works department falling within the limits of Municipal Corporations, Municipalities, NACs, Sub-Divisional headquarters, Tehsil headquarters and block headquarters under Sundargarh are henceforth classified as Urban Roads.
Under Sundargarh (R and B) division, 24 road sections of 46.166 kms length of different roads are now classified as Urban Roads. Similarly Rourkela (R and B) division in Sundargarh district received an order on classification of Urban Roads where 24 road sections of about 36.420 km length of different roads were found.
Since the Supreme Court had declared that liquor shops within 500 meters of SHs and NHs should be shifted from that area, the State Government declared the roads as Urban Road so that closed liquors shops can be reopened.
After the declaration of Urban Roads, the Excise Department in Sundargarh district was intimated and the owners of the closed liquor shops started processing to reopen the shop on the same spot.