Liquor vends flout lockdown norms, remain open after 6pm Bathinda

Defying guidelines, many liquor vends were found open even at 8pm at several places

Liquor traders, who opened vends in Punjab only after vehemently raising the issue of expected losses due to coronavirus, are flouting the lockdown guidelines by keeping vends open after the permissible time.

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Defying guidelines, many liquor vends can be found open even at 8pm at several places. In the lockdown 4.0, liquor vends have been allowed to open from 7am to 6pm.

In lockdown 3.0 from May 4 to 17, the Punjab government allowed opening of liquor vends from May 7. But the traders opted to keep the vends closed for over a week demanding that state government compensates them for loss of business due to closure of vends due to the lockdown. Traders starting opening vends from May 14 after chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh formed a panel of officials to asses losses to traders due to lockdown.

The CM had also approved the finance department’s recommendation to provide proportionate adjustment of ‘minimum guarantee quota’ for the losses incurred in the 9 days of lockdown in March (2.5% cut from total revenue quota of Rs 5,675 crore), which comes out to Rs 141 crore. In the current financial year, relaxation of 10% (Rs 620 crore) was approved of a total of Rs 6,200 crore revenue projection.

A reality check shows that vends remain open for hours at several places in the city even after 6 pm. This, despite the fact that owners of other shops, many of which sell essential commodities, close their shops by 6pm and administration also make sure that these shops are closed by this time. However, there is no check on liquor vends timing. There are police check posts near many liquor vends in Bathinda city.

Deputy commissioner B Srinivasan couldn’t be contacted despite repeated attempts. Assistant excise and taxation commissioner, Bathinda, RK Malhotra said that liquor vends are supposed to do business from 7am to 6pm.

A liquor trader, however, said that a majority of liquor sale is done in the evening so it is not possible for them to shut vends by 6pm.

Traders had already been claiming that reduced number of hours to keep open vends will also cause financial loss to them.