The efforts of the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), the public sector monopoly booze seller of Kerala, to shift its existing retail liquor shops to places located over 500 metres away from national highways in order to comply with a Supreme Court order have fallen into a crisis due to intense protests from the people in places to where the corporation has been planning to shift the outlets.
Agitations are going on in dozens of places in the State to where the Bevco is planning to shift liquor outlets. In many places, the Bevco’s bid to open shops and the people’s resistance to it are threatening to turn into law and order issues. The Bevco has already written to the Government seeking protection for its efforts for shop-shifting.
The corporation has so far been able to shift only a few liquor outlets from near the highways in accordance with the apex court order.