Excise department to crack down on liquor vends in red zone of highways from Friday midnight
The excise department has already identified 143 such pub/bars/liquor vends, including 34 in CyberHub and others in Sector 29 and Sohna Road, that will be affected by the Supreme Court decision.
Liquor will not be served in pubs and bars that fall within 500 metres of national and state highways in the city from Friday midnight. Following the Supreme Court order on Friday afternoon, the Haryana excise department has decided to crack down on sale of liquor in pub and bars within the red zone demarcated by the apex court.
The department has formed more than 10 teams and has taken additional officials from sales tax department for the stocktaking of liquor in restaurants. The licences of all affected restaurants are unlikely to be renewed by the excise department.
The excise department has already identified 143 such pub/bars/liquor vends, including 34 in CyberHub and others in Sector 29 and Sohna Road, that will be affected by the Supreme Court decision.
Aruna Singh, deputy excise and taxation commissioner(DETC) East said, “The licences of these pub and bars would not be renewed as they fall within the red zone as directed by the apex court. We have formed teams and they have been given directions as to how to go about the entire procedure of implementing the Supreme Court order.”
“This (SC order) was a sudden development and despite it being so, we are getting ready for any kind of directions issued by the headquarters,” said HC Dahiya, DETC (West).
Regular visitors to the city’s watering holes said the decision of the Supreme Court was too harsh and it would kill the food and beverage industry in Gurgaon, which has emerged as the entertainment hot spot in the region.
