As a measure for road safety, the State Government has initiated steps for ending easy availability of liquor by the side of highways to check drunken driving.
At a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Parsad Padhi at the State Secretariat here on Saturday, Excise Secretary Bishnupada Sethi outlined the issues for discussion.
Considering the suggestions in the light of the orders of the Supreme Court on location of liquor shops, Padhi directed the Excise and Works Departments to work together for identifying the liquor shops presently operating within 500 metre of the highways.
Padhi asked them to complete identification of the shops within 15 days to one month. He further directed the concerned departments to implement orders of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit.
It was decided that the liquor shops within 500 metres of the National and State Highways would be shifted and relocated from April 1, 2017. The Chief Secretary directed the Excise Department to instruct the Collectors accordingly.
Notably, the Supreme Court in its order on December 15, 2016 directed for shifting the liquor shops located within 500 metre from the highways.
The apex court quoting the survey report of the National Road Safety Council and the National Highways Authority of India pointed that in 2011, a total number of 4.9 lakh road accidents took place in the country out of which around 24,655 were caused due to drunken driving.
In 2012, the total number of road accidents was at the same level of 4.9 lakh out of which around 23,979 accidents took place because of the same cause. In the entire country, around 10,553 persons lost their lives in these accidents during 2011 which, however, came down to 7,835 during 2012.
Among others, Director General of Police KB Singh, Home Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy, Finance Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey and Police Commissioner YB Khurania were present at the meeting.