Panjim: The government’s inability to avoid the ban on liquor outlets has disheartened retail outlet owners and their families.Speaking to Herald, a dejected President of Goa Liquor Owners Association (GLTA), Dattaprasad Naik, said, “It is game over for 789 wine shops in the State and is the most painful moment of my life.”With Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar providing relief to bar and restaurants and wholesalers by exempting them from the Supreme Court orders to ban liquor shops within 500 meters from the highways, more than 2300 outlets have received relief.Stating that if the ban had to include bar and restaurants the number of families affected would be more than 12000, Naik said, “Every outlet has many staff along with them so one has to take their families also into consideration. There are businesses that are dependent on restaurants and bars, such as fish, vegetables and aerated drinks.” Questioning the policing, he said that to control drunken driving Police officials and Transport Department need to act. “Just because the police and RTO are not functioning you cannot put the wine shop owners and their families into trouble, he added. He said that more than 50 percent of retail shops can be saved if the apex court’s directions are interpreted as ‘approachable road’ and not ‘radius’. “Purpose is to prevent road accidents. The drivers will take an approachable road to the wine shops. But the Excise Department has calculated it as radius. That is not the case with other states, everywhere else the Excise Departments have calculated as approachable road,” he stated.Citing examples, Naik said, “In Thane in Sattari, a wine shop is on the other side of the mountain, but when calculated according to Excise Department it is 450 meters. However, the approachable road is more than 1.5 kilometers. And for this reason the department hasn’t renewed the licence.”In another incident, he said that in Canacona, there is a river flowing parallel to the highway and across the river there are some houses and a wine shop. When calculated by radius it is 300 meters but when you take an accessible road, the distance is more than 1 km. Pinning his hopes on the Chief Minister, he said, “We are hopeful that the Chief Minister will find a solution to this. But 500 metres in the Goan context is not justified because we have certain areas like the villages of Valpoi, Sanquelim, Bicholim and Thivim, there will be no wine shops. Vasco is going to be completely wiped out. In Margao, only about five shops are going to be left.”GLTA, in a memorandum to the Chief Minister, requested to amend the Goa Excise Duty Act and calculate the distance as approachable road and not radius from the highway to the wine.Asked if the government had missed on reacting, Naik said the tragedy with Goa was that there was no government in place when the orders were pronounced. “The orders came on December 15, 2016 and on January 4, 2017 elections were declared and till 15 March nothing happened,” he added.The second demand is to denotify the highways into main district roads. Sources informed that the government will not approach this solution as denotifying highways will involve too many barriers, including zoning of land. [H] <http://www.heraldgoa.in/Goa/789-liquor-shops-in-State-to-down-shutters/113253.html> Share
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