ROQUE DIAS | NT
MARGAO: Nearly 45 per cent of the total 1802 bars and wholesale liquor outlets in Salcete taluka will have to shut shop by March-end as the state government has rolled up its sleeves to implement the Supreme Court order on closure of liquor shops along national and state highways.
A taluka-level committee constituted by the core committee of the state for the purpose will hold an important meeting on Monday.
There are 213 bars, 151 pet bottle selling outlets and 36 wholesale liquor shops under the jurisdiction of the Margao municipality, senior excise inspector Chandranath Desai said adding that 95 per cent of these shops are facing closure as most of them are located within the radius of 500 metre of state and national highways.
Some 108 such liquor shops in Cuncolim municipal areas have been identified for non-renewal of their licences.
Besides the legal bars, there are some 250 illegal bars operating in Margao and its peripheral areas.
On December 16 2016, the SC had ordered closure of all liquor shops along national and state highways within a distance of 500 metres and directed state governments to stop issuing excise licences.
The Margao municipality has started the ball rolling in implementing the SC order and removed from its jurisdiction the signage and boards about the liquor shops.
“At least 79 such boards have been removed…,” MMC’s chief officer Y B Tavde said.
Maximum numbers of bars which are facing closure are located along the national highway which passes through from Margao to Cuncolim.
Besides, bars located along the national and state highways in the taluka and passing through from Verna to Cuncolim, from Margao to Borim and from Borim to Loutolim and Rassaim will also have to be closed down.
Salcete mamlatdar Vishal Kundaikar said members of the taluka-level committee would inspect each and every bars located along the state and national highway passing through the taluka and submit a report to the core committee for taking a final call.
Sources feared that the taluka-level committee visiting the bars may elicit negative reactions from bar operators and customers.
“First, we will go as a team and if any problem arises then we will take police protection… Complaints will be filed against those who may obstruct us from doing our duties,’’ Desai said.
Expressing concern over nearly 1.5 lakh deaths every year in road mishaps, a SC bench had said that no new liquor vends should come up along the highways while those already having licences would have to shut shop by April 1, 2017.
It is understood that half of the road accidents in Goa occur due to drunk driving.
Disappointed by the SC order, some bar operators have criticised the state government for not getting a real picture of liquor sale and consumption so as to make an appeal in the court.
“The government is not bothered about us.. After the SC intervened now everybody is rushing to implement the order. We demand that the state government should give us a rehabilitation package or compensate us for the loss,” said R Raikar, a Margao-based bar owner.
Former MMC chairperson Gonzaco Rebello, who runs a bar, said that implementation of the SC order would deprive several families of livelihood.