The restaurants and dhabas offering liquor without licence to travellers on break journey along the National Highways have been put on the police and excise department radar in view of the New Year celebrations. Both the departments have deployed special teams to keep a tab on restaurants and dhabas offering liquor without having a licence to sell alcoholic drinks to visitors.
City SP Kishore Kaushal said on Saturday that the police teams have been asked to keep close eye on any and every dhaba or restaurant situated along the National Highways which pass through city area, or connecting roads from city which take to highways. He said that the step was taken right before Christmas only to run extensively till first week of next year.
“After the Supreme Court order, we had started identifying authorised liquor shops which were to be shut down. Though such drive is continuous, we have only intensified it prior to the Christmas and it will continue past New Year celebrations. We are taking help of traffic police as well, which is on its duty to curb drink and drive cases,” said Kaushal.
Excise department, at the same time, said that it was also running an extensive drive to identify liquor shops within 500 meters of any of the National Highway across the State. “Though we have not got Supreme Court order yet in which it had asked to remove all Highway liquor shops falling within 500 meters of any of the National Highways. However, we have started identifying such shops and have directed our teams in the State to ask them to shut their operations down,” said Excise Commissioner Vinod Shanker Singh. However, the (excise) department is taking selling of illicit liquor more seriously than selling liquor without licence. “Though both are crimes, but selling illicit liquor is more a serious crime because it directly poses immediate life threat. So, our teams have been strictly directed to keep eyes on the people or area which are vulnerable in terms of trade of illicit liquor, especially on the occasion of New Year,” said Singh. He added that the department had been initiating advertising campaigns to discourage purchase of liquor from unauthorised sites or shops.