The political Opposition as well as a ruling Minister in Goa has accused the BJP-led coalition Government of not doing enough to seek exemption for the coastal State from the Supreme Court’s ban on liquor outlets in close proximity of national highways.
The Congress on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa of trying to slip in Prohibition through alternative means, while Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai of the Goa Foward party, an alliance partner, said that alcohol and bars are an “essential ingredient of Goanness” and that the SC ought to have been apprised of the cultural realities of Goa, while the case was being heard.
“The fact, is that the earlier Government was ruled by BJP, which is also in power now and yet they did not make a single effort to file a revision petition in Court or even plead to make the Goa government a party in the case. This looks like a plan to impose the Prohibition and the Gujarat model in Goa,” leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar told at the State Congress headquarters in Panaji.
Goa is well known for its liberal liquor regime, where alcohol is taxed less, as compared to other States. There are over 11,000 licenced liquor vendors in the State, including bar and restaurant licence holders and around 3,000 such outlets are facing the axe thanks to the apex court order.
The Congress has now said that, both the preceding BJP-led coalition Government as well as the incumbent BJP-led dispensation, had not even bothered to file revision petition in the SC, during the time when the case was being heard by the apex court.
"We are shocked by the lethargy. The Congress will come out on the streets with the affected liquor vendors. They have already warned us of violence, if their bars and liquor stores are shut down. Some of these stores have been in existence even before the liberation of Goa in 1961," Congress MlA and former chief minister Digambar Kamat said.
TCP minister Sardesai said that he would file a revision petition before the Supreme Court in the interests of the affected liquor traders.
"The Supreme Court should be made aware of the cultural realities of Goa," Sardesai said, adding that the bars and taverns were a part of the Goan identity.