Curfew announcement in Delhi leads to queues outside liquor shops

The announcement of a week-long curfew in the national capital on Monday resulted in long queues outside liquor shops throughout the day even as police struggled to ensure social distancing outside these shops

The announcement of a week-long curfew in the national capital on Monday resulted in long queues outside liquor shops throughout the day even as police struggled to ensure social distancing outside these shops.

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Similar to the lockdown last year, alcohol shops are not on the list of essential services that are allowed during the curfew. This essentially meant that residents would be able to buy alcohol in Delhi only after a week and so began the rush to stock up before the curfew kicked in on Monday night.

Satyarth (goes by a single name), a lawyer who was among those who queued up at a shop in north Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh, said, “My flatmate and I stood in queue for over an hour before we bought enough bottles to last us through the week.” He said the shopkeeper did not put any limit on purchase per customer.

Satyarth said he decided to step out despite the high risk of infection as he had to shell out more last year to purchase alcohol from bootleggers during the lockdown.

Vinod Giri, director general, Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC), termed the rush a “panic reaction”, “driven by people’s memory of lockdown extensions last year”.

“For lakhs of people all over India, alcohol is a part of their regular consumption basket and they do not wish to be deprived of it. While we hope that the public and shopkeepers in Delhi adhere to Covid appropriate behaviour, steps to reassure public would also help. The decision of Maharashtra (government) to allow home delivery of liquor, for example, has helped contain panic buying there. We urge the Delhi government to think of similar steps,” he said.

Police officers said they deployed more personnel outside liquor shops when they learnt of the long queues.

“We acted against shopkeepers and customers wherever we felt that social distancing norms were being flouted. In New Friends Colony, for example, we registered a case against the owner of the shop. We also prosecuted some customers,” said RP Meena, deputy commissioner of police (south-east).