In a bid to sustain its revenue earned through liquor after Supreme Court order to close all the liquor vends and bars from along the national and state highways, State Government had made some amendments and declared stretches of State highways as other district road (ODR). When the relocated liquor shops were being situated inside the streets and near residential areas then the local women started staging protest against the decision.
later, the authorities decided to serve the liquor customers through mobile vans on the pattern of service provided by multinational companies. Now that the women have been getting mobilised against the mobile liquor van concept so state authorities have decided to withdraw such vans shortly.
With the decision of the state authorities to introduce mobile vans selling liquor, the people who consume alcohol were enjoying the facility as they had been getting their liquor delivered at their door step but some other people started opposing this. As some women started raising their voice against the decision, they also warned that if the state Government does not withdraw the mobile liquor vans then they would take to the road to stage an indefinite period protest.
Sensing the sentiments of the women, who had played a pivotal role in statehood agitation with the Muzaffarnagar incident still haunting the public memory, the State Excise Minister Prakash Pant said that as the State had introduced 12 mobile liquor vans of which now 10 such vans have been stopped with immediate effect. The remaining two vans will also be removed from service shortly.
On condition of anonymity an official said that it is true that the State earns a hefty sum through excise per annum. Even this year the State Government has set a target of earning Rs 2,310 crore through excise on the sale of liquor. This would be about Rs 405 crore more than the amount for the financial year 2016-17. Each district has been given target as per its tentative capacity and the district magistrates would distribute liquor to each licensed liquor outlet in their respective districts as per the norms.
Now the question being raised is whether the state has a concrete action plan to achieve its target for financial requirement as state is already facing new GST regime and in this scenario if the source of revenue through excise is hampered then the state’s situation would be more challenging than it is now.
It should be mentioned here that following the Supreme Court directions, state’s 530 licensed liquor shops were affected. In Nainital 61 shops were affected but only 33 shops were opened at new locations while in Udham Singh Nagar 102 shops were affected but only 66 shops were opened in other locations so far.
The State government does not have any plan to impose a ban on liquor in the state. Following the Supreme Court order liquor shops situated along the national highway were to be shifted 500 metres away from the NH and in local bodies which have population of less than 20,000 the vends will be shifted 220 metres away from the populated area. With the cabinet meeting 63 out of 92 local bodies’ roads were de-notified as ODR from State highways. The State had had also stated that the Government is not in a position to facilitate expansion on these 63 roads from now onward.