3K liquor shops’ allotment on Saturday

LUCKNOW: The state’s excise department will hold e-lottery for allotment of nearly 3000 liquor shops for 2020-21 which couldn’t be allotted ostensibly because of the Covid-19 induced nearly 10-week lockdown that is now being lifted in a phased manner.

The e-lottery process would begin on Thursday and continue till Friday while the lottery for allotment would be held on Saturday, June 6. Applications to bid for shops through e-lottery could be made online till 5 pm on June 4, said P Guruprasad, excise commissioner, UP.

Lucknow, Agra, Prayagraj, Kanpur and Ayodhya would bid for e-lottery bid first between 11 am to 1 pm on June 6 followed by Bareilly, Meerut, Devipatan, Moradabad, Mirzapur and Jhansi where people would get to place bids between 1 pm to 3 pm. Aligarh, Saharanpur, Basti, Chitrakoot, Azamgarh, Varanasi and Gorakhpur would go next from 3 pm to 5.30 pm, officials said.

The online applications would be vetted from 5 pm on June 4 till 2 pm on June 5 while the e-lottery would take place at a time and place fixed by district magistrates on from 11 am onwards on June 6.

Earlier, these bids were to be held before March 31 so that allotment of liquor shops could be made by March 31. “However, the process got delayed due to lockdown,” principal secretary, excise Sanjay R Bhoosreddy said.

Liquor shops had remained closed for nearly six weeks due to lockdown and barring May 4 when they opened to big queues, the business had been mostly dull, said shopkeepers.