NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) on Friday slammed the state government for its “insensitive” approach towards the owners of liquor outlets and bars and demanded to file a petition in the Supreme Court strongly opposing the ban on liquor shops on the grounds that it will cause loss of revenue and livelihood.
The party also said that the government needed to lobby aggressively with the Union Roads and Transport Ministry for the withdrawal of the notification on upgrading 21 major state roads into highways as livelihood of the owners of many other liquor outlets and bars will then get affected on account of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to ban bars within 500 metres of highways.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro said that it is high time the state government files a petition or else the liquor shop owners will suffer the same fate as mining-affected people. He said that if the central government’s notification on converting 21 major state roads into highways is implemented then nearly ninety per cent major roads in Goa will be either state or national highways and then 7,000 to 8,000 liquor outlets in the state will be affected by SC ban and bring misery to 20,000 families. Faleiro accused the central government of arbitrarily taking the decision to upgrade the major roads in the state into highways adding, “We strongly condemn this and warn the government, especially the central government, not to go ahead with it.”
Faleiro also claimed that the state BJP government was sleeping for the last five years on responding to draft notification on converting major state roads into highways with the Centre and employing delaying tactics. The party will take up the issue at the state level and set up a special cell called ‘tourism and bar affected people’ so as to take raise the grievances of affected stakeholders across the state.