Plans to move highway liquor outlets face protests

KERALA

COMPLYING WITH the Supreme Court directive to close down all liquor outlets along national and state highways is turning out to be an uphill task for the Kerala government. According to the Supreme Court verdict, delivered on December 15 last year, all liquor outlets along highways have to shut down by March 31.

The state-run Kerala State Beverages Corporation Limited (Bevco) had decided to relocate 183 out of its 270 outlets along the highways. But so far, it has been only able to shift 23 outlets due to stiff opposition from locals around places identified for relocation of shops.

While Excise Minister T P Ramakrishnan asked people to cooperate with the government, the government doesn’t want to go on a collision course. Local sentiments would be taken into account, Ramakrishnan said.

The minister said the government would move the apex court, seeking extension of the deadline to relocate liquor shops from highways to another two years. Besides, the state government wants exemption with regard to the outlets functioning in municipal towns and corporations. It also wants clarification on operating beer parlours, toddy shops and five-star hotels with liquor licences along the highways.

A Bevco official, meanwhile, said the bid to relocate the liquor outlets had triggered protests everywhere.

“In many places, the firm had identified buildings in remote areas. But when we start preparations for the shop, local residents begin an agitation. Since politicians and people’s representatives are forced to join the protest, Bevco has little option but to withdraw the decision to relocate the outlet,” he said.

Like in Thiruvananthapuram city, a protest by school students forced Bevco to close down a relocated shop. At Konni in Pathanamthitta, local Congress legislator and bar owner Adoor Prakash led a mass protest against shifting of the outlet to the area.

Bevco officials suspect that in many places, beer parlour owners were sponsoring the agitation as winding up of the outlets would improve their sales.

Interestingly, a group took out a march at Kaduthuruthi in Kottayam on Tuesday, demanding that their favorite liquor outlet be retained. Bevco had relocated the outlet from Kaduthurithi town to nearby Adityapuram.