In the second leg of Kerala’s journey towards total liquor ban, 39 (ten per cent) of the total 384 retail booze shops went out of operation on Tuesday night even as 312 bars in the State got an automatic extension to remain in operation as the High Court did not pronounce its verdict on Tuesday as proposed by the Supreme Court in the case related to the order for their closure.
In the first phase of the liquor ban programme, Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government had on August 22 decided not to renew the licences of the 418 bars closed on March 31 last. There are 312 bars remaining in operation and all of them, except those in the five-star hotels, will have to down their shutters if the High Court upholds the Government order to close them.
The Supreme Court had in early September instructed the High Court to settle the bars closure case by September 30 and had later allowed the owners to keep the 292 bars in operation till the High Court pronounced its final verdict. The bar owners had approached the Supreme Court after the Government ordered the closure of the 292 bars by September 12.
As per the Government decision, ten per cent of the retail outlets are to be closed every Gandhi Jayanti day (October 2) leading to total eradication of the ‘liquor menace” by October 2, 2023. However, the first batch of 39 outlets went out of operation on Tuesday night as Wednesday as first day of the month and October 2 as Gandhi Jayanti are no-booze days (dry days).
Of the total 39 shops of the first batch for closure, 34 belonged to the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), the State-run monopoly liquor distributor and five to the ConsumerFed, another Government agency. The Bevco has been operating 338 outlets while ConsumerFed had 38 shops in the State.
All these 39 retail liquor outlets witnessed brisk sales on Tuesday as boozers took care not to miss the chance to by the last bottles. “The Government is committing a gross injustice. The move is totally insincere. If the Government is serious, it should have closed down all shops,” said a consumer at a retail liquor outlet in Thrissur district.
The 34 Bevco outlets destined for closure on Tuesday included the only liquor shop in the Puthuppally constituency of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the chief architect of the phase-by-phase liquor ban programme. Boozers who thronged at outlet at Vakathanam on Tuesday were heard cursing and ridiculing Chandy for the move.
“It is quite clear that the CM is doing this not out of his sincerity to uphold Kerala’s reputation as God’s Own Country but to refurbish his image and to appease the anti-liquor lobby of various communities. I am not going to stop drinking due to this. If liquor is not available, I will produce it myself,” said a consumer at the shop at Vakathanam.
However, even pro-Prohibition activists, pointing at the beer and wine parlour operating just 100 metres away from the Bevco outlet, opined that the new liquor policy was half-baked. “The Government is arguing that beer and wine contain only less alcohol. But everybody knows that it does not take much time for light drink to become hard liquor,” said a retired school teacher.
Meanwhile, employees of the shops which went out of operation on Tuesday are preparing to launch an agitation in protest against the lack of measures to rehabilitate them. While announcing the liquor policy, the Government had said that all the employees in the sector would be rehabilitated but nothing had been do so far, employees said on Tuesday evening.