CHANDIGARH: Cities across the country around began to shut down liquor outlets within 500 m of national and state highways as ordered by the Supreme Court. Governments and municipalities counted their losses even as liquor retailers explored ways to protect their profit margins. The cities most affected were those through which national highways pass.
Chandigarh, for instance has gone almost dry with 63 bars, restaurants and discotheques and 25 pubs having to down their shutters on Saturday.
Hotels in the city have been badly hit because a majority of them are in Sectors 26, 7, 9, 35, 43 and 17 which fall within the 500 zone. Hotel Taj in Sector 17, Hotel J W Marriott in Sector 35, Hotel The President in Sector 26 besides pubs, bars and restaurants like Brew Estate, Great Bear, F Bar, Mainland China, Swagat, Score, S Café, Purple Frog and Boom Box are some of the affected joints as they are situated on Madhya Marg and along the national highway that cuts through Sector 34 and 35.
Sources said 22 liquor vends on these two roads were closed today.
However, Hotel Mountview in Sector 10, Shivalik View in Sector 17 and Hotel Parkview -- all three run by the Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Corporation Limited (CITCO) -- and the privately owned The Lalit and Hyatt Regency are safe. As are Chandigarh's major clubs such as the Chandigarh Golf Club, Chandigarh Club, Lake Club, CGA Golf Range.
Sources said Chandigarh's restaurant industry will take a Rs 150 crore hit from the ban as 50 per cent of their revenue comes from the sale of liquor. Also, the coffers of the Chandigarh administration is sure to suffer a revenue loss of Rs 8.43 crore by way excise duties. Bars are required to pay the administration Rs 12 lakh as liquor license fees and pubs Rs 3.50 lakh.
Maharashtra: How do we get round it?
In Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Assembly debated the highway liquor ban
on Saturday. The Supreme Court orders have forced 15,699 liquor shops out of the 25,513 in the state to close down. This would cost the state exchequer over Rs 7000 crore in revenue.
The state government is worried about the spurious liquor that is likely to flourish once bars, pubs and liquor shops are closed down, excise minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule told the Assembly.
The minister said the government is exploring options to keep the excise cash registers ringing. One idea aired is that if highways passing through cities could be handed over to the respective local bodies from the public works department, it could create a loophole for business as usual.
Dhabas innovate in Bengal
Such improvisations have already gained momentum in Bengal with dhabas taking the lead. Many dhabas on the major highways in south Bengal, including National Highway 2 (Delhi road) and National Highway 6 (Bombay road), are planning to shift their drinking tables to their backyard so they fall beyond the 500 m lakshman rekha drawn by the Supreme Court.
“My dhaba is 300 m from the highway. If I set up thatched roofing behind the dhaba and serve alcohol there, I could get my licence renewed,” said Manpreet Singh, a dhaba owner on NH 6.
For established bars and restaurants, there is no option other than dismantling the existing structure and rebuilding it 500 m away. “I had a two-storeyed structure for my bar just 50 m from the highway. Now, I have to buy the land behind my bar, dismantle my bar and rebuild it again,” said Raja Sen, a bar owner on the Orissa Trunk Road in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal.
Assam: Bars begin to shift
In Assam, most of the 800 bars and wine shops that fall within the 500 m limit remained closed on Saturday. The state’s excise minister, Parimal Suklabaidya, told New Indian Express that most of the affected traders have applied to shifting their outlets.
“As it would be contempt of court, they are not doing any business today (Saturday). There could be a few of them running their business clandestinely but we will go hard at them,” he warned.