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Gurugram: Tipplers queue up outside liquor shops, return empty-handed
Gurugram:
Gurugram:
Like other cities of the national capital region where many people lined up in front of wine shops to buy liquor bottles on Monday morning, Gurugram also witnessed long queues outside liquor vends well ahead of their opening across the city. However, tipplers in Gurugram had to return from the shops empty-handed as the liquor stores remained shut throughout the day.
However, officials of the excise department said there are chances that the liquor shops in Gurugram will be allowed to open within this week.
People queued up outside liquor shops in different parts of the district, including Sector 15, Sector 56, Badshahpur area and Sohna Road, since the early hours of Monday, but found the outlets remained closed. Police teams patrolling in these areas had to ask them to go back home. Some people were seen waiting in their luxury cars outside the closed stores in the morning to grab their stock.
The confusion was apparently due to the orders in neighbouring states and the national capital where liquor shops were opened on Monday.
In Gurugram, many people were eagerly waiting to buy liquor as they reached outside the shops before 7am.
Gaurav Gupta, a resident of Sector 50, said that he reached the liquor shop at 6.45am so that he could collect his stock before anything went wrong. “I thought the state government announced that all shops, including liquor vends, would be allowed to open. There was no clarity on it,” he said.
Another resident, Atul Sharma of Sohna Road, said he had returned in the morning as he was told the shops would open at 2pm, but despite waiting for an hour there was no progress. “The government had not announced the temporary shutdown of liquor shops and suddenly took the decision. At least it should have given some time to people to stock up. This has increased the black marketing of liquor in the city,” he claimed.
The owner of a liquor shop in the Golf Course Road area said they have not received circular from the excise department to open shops. “Our shops have already been sealed by the department. So, unless the department asks us to start the operations, we cannot open the outlets,” he said.
H C Dahiya, deputy excise and taxation commissioner (west), said that the department has not received any orders yet from the state to reopen the liquor vends in the district. “We are likely to receive orders in a day or two and there are chances that the liquor shops will be open within this week. But fresh guidelines will be issued to ensure the shop owners maintain social distancing to ensure the safety of people from the deadly virus,” he said
