Unlicensed liquor shops on the rise in Ggn
GURUGRAM: Among the various sectors where Gurugram contributes enormously to government exchequer, liquor sale is an outstanding contributor. The liquor business extends beyond the sales at glitzy pubs and bars to the roadside liquor vending units.
The recent prohibition protests and increase in license fees have somewhat prevented the opening of these units, despite a huge demand. The demand for alcohol is resulting in opening of various liquor vend, which are not registered with the Excise department.
This month alone, four illegal shops were been unearthed, resulting in the seizure of more than 1,000 crates of liquor.
According to Gurugram Police officials, there is a sizeable number of liquor vending units operating in the city that have not been approved by the authorities. Regular raids are being carried out by law enforcement officials to close these units.
“It is important that most liquor vending units that are set up in the sector are registered with us, as it will ensure the safety of citizens and also make sure that they are not selling spurious liquor,” said a senior official from the Excise department.
In the past, there have been complaints against liquor vending units selling spurious liquor and not paying taxes to the government by setting up shops in residential areas and even along the state and national highways.
Irrespective of the strict stance taken by law enforcement agencies, the busi- ness of liquor continues to thrive in Gurugram.
The huge demand for new licenses in southern districts of Haryana can be gauged from the fact that earlier, only Rs 663 crore was collected from these districts. Now, there has been an 18 per cent increase in new alcoholic vendor units in Gurugram and Faridabad.
This growth has been witnessed after there was a decrease in licensing fee of around two per cent for new liquor vending units.
For long, Gurugram, followed by Faridabad, has been leading among Haryana’s 22 districts in terms of setting up new vendor units for selling alcoholic beverages. This time, however, it faced stiff competition from districts of Panipat and Kaithal, that showed around 20 per cent rise.
The new bidding process comes after the Supreme Court’s order of stopping the sale of liquor in the units located within 500 metres of National Highway-8. As most upscale liquor pubs and restaurants are located along NH-8, the adverse impact was mostly felt in Gurugram. NEW DELHI: A group of half-naked drunk men created havoc in Jamia Nagar in South East Delhi on Monday night at around 11:30 pm, which terrified the residents. The hooligans, who were shirtless and more than 10 in number, stopped passersby and abused them. They also manhandled a few persons.
Later, they are seen opening fire in the air, brandishing pistols in their hands.
The whole episode happened not more than 100 meters from the area MLA Amanatullah Khan’s house. The local residents were forced to close the doors and windows of their houses when the naked gang resorted to firing.
“I was terrified for my 7-year-old daughter. She asked what was happening. I just asked her to go inside. They were abusing at the pitch of their voice and stopping the pedestrians and battery rickshaws. They forcibly applied cake on their faces which they had cut at night,” said Sharique, a local resident of the area.
Sharique was brave enough to capture the whole episode on his mobile. The drunk men are seen without shirts fighting with each other, throwing stones randomly and stopping the people passing by at will. Later, one of them took out a gun and a gunshot is heard.
Meanwhile, the police have neither registered a case in the incident nor made any arrests.