PANAJI: The all-important, taluka-level survey to determine the number of liquor shops affected by the Supreme Court order will commence from Wednesday, said the core committee set up for monitoring the implementation of the apex court order.
With time running out, the survey work will be completed in a week’s time, by February 20, said the committee, which had its meeting on Tuesday morning.
Earlier, on February 9, the core committee headed by excise commissioner, had decided that the taluka-level teams through a statewide survey will physically verify the location of each liquor shop, bar and restaurant from the highways.
In its second meeting on Tuesday, it was decided to start the survey work from February 15 and identify the liquor licences for outlets, which are within the 500-metre radius of national and state highways. The survey findings are scheduled for February 20, as per the decision of the committee.
Each eight-member, taluka-level team is headed by mamlatdar, while its other members are from the department of excise, land survey, PWD, panchayat secretary, talathi, police and circle inspector. The survey is expected to be conducted simultaneously in all talukas to expedite the work.
Although the apex court order, directing closure of liquor outlets within 500-metre radius of highways came way back on December 15, 2016, work on it could not be carried out because of the state assembly election that ended on February 4 and the model code of conduct.
“The apex court order is going to be implemented ‘in letter and spirit,’” said Menino D’Souza, excise commissioner, recently. Tentative estimates are that about 2,000 liquor outlets will have to be shut down out of 11,000 currently in existence in the state. The impact on tourism and local economy is expected to be significant, said D’Souza.
The government plans to appeal against the apex court order but first it has to find out the number of shops that are going to be adversely affected. The survey is expected to come out with the actual numbers.
Expressing concern over 1.5 lakh road accident deaths occurring annually, the apex court has ordered that all liquor vends along national and state highways will have to be closed down and all hoardings pulled down. The bench clarified that no liquor licence can be renewed after April 1, 2017.