With full-blown stirs continuing unabated across the State against opening or relocation of booze vends, the traders have stayed away from submitting application to procure licenses for 67 out of 503 liquor shops located in the State. However, the final figures are yet to be collected from Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Dehradun districts as the officers remain engaged in feeding the data.
However, things regarding numbers of shops for which no application has been received so far will be cleared by late Saturday, the excise officials said.
Following protests of various organisations across the state, the numbers of liquor shops have been reduced to 503 against 526 shops operational last year. Besides, to raise the volume of revenue collected in the form of excise tax in the state, the department has decided to open 79 composite liquor shops for the year from June 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018 across the state. Notably, the composite shops are the ones from where the traders would sell Indian Made Foreign liquor (IMFl), Country Made liquor (CMl) and Beer together. This year, 503 liquor shops would be allowed to run after they are awarded licenses through the lottery system, said the state excise officer BS Chauhan.
The State Government had converted some of the state highways into district highways to spare them the hassle of relocation following the landmark Supreme Court order of shifting such shops from the outer edges of both types of highways. However, with the agitations continuing, there is a marked absence of enthusiasm among the traders regarding booze vends. Sources said that the excise department has incurred a huge loss in the form of revenue excise tax in two months- April and May- with some shops in the state remaining closed following protests of various organisations against the sale of liquor.
Chauhan said that 895 traders have showed interest for 16 shops in Tehri district while 772 traders for 34 shops in Pauri, 832 traders for 15 shops in Chamoli, 497 traders for 16 shops in Uttarkashi, 460 traders for 9 shops in Rudraprayg, 988 traders for 43 shops in Almora, 503 traders for 12 shops in Bageshwar, 672 traders for 24 shops in Pithoragarh and 366 traders for 14 shops in Champawat. Department officials are now busy feeding names of applicants in Hardwar, Udham Singh Nagar, Dehradun and Nainital districts where the numbers of shops are 90, 92, 80 and 78 respectively, he added.