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Long queues seen outside liquor shops in Gurugram
leena.dhankhar@htlive.com
leena.dhankhar@htlive.com
Gurugram
Long queues were seen outside liquor shops across the district, which reopened on Wednesday morning after a gap of about 50 days. Many people had arrived at the vends well ahead of their opening time of 7am.
However, unlike the chaotic situation in other NCR cities that opened their liquor shops on Monday, the rush in Gurugram remained under control and social distancing norms were maintained at all places, the police said.
The Haryana government on March 26 had decided to temporarily shut down all the liquor vends across the state as part of its preventive measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 outbreak.
On Wednesday, serpentine queues outside liquor stores were seen in areas such as Golf Course Road, Sohna Road, MG Road, Sector 18, and Sector 40. In Sector 40, more than 400 people were seen waiting for the shop to open.
Swati Kishore, who had lined up at Sector 40 liquor shop at 6am to buy liquor, said she did not expect such a huge police presence outside the liquor shops. “I had to wait for almost two hours before I bought my stock. But everything was so well managed and buyers were given ample time to pick their stock,” she said.
Another buyer, Preeti Tehlan, said that she and her friends had reached the shop at Sector 18 around 6am and had packed their breakfast which they had standing in the queue. “The shopkeeper provided water and tea for the people who were waiting since early morning. I will remember this experience, as we had never imagined standing in a queue for more than two hours just to buy liquor,” she said.
Learning from the experience of neighbouring cities of Delhi and Noida, more than 3,000 police personnel and home guards were deployed at the 218 liquor vends (including two wholesale shops) across the district.
According to police officials, more than 40 personnel were deployed at the Sector 40 shop where the maximum number of people visited to buy liquor. The police also distributed 2,000 face masks to people who were seen using a piece of cloth to cover their faces.
Aman Yadav, assistant commissioner of police (Sadar), said that they had formed teams on Tuesday night which included excise officials also and they had demarcated lines and circles outside the shops to ensure social distancing. “Barricades were set up 100 metres before the liquor vends to control the crowd and strict directions were given to the shopkeepers to ensure people are wearing face masks and using sanitisers before entering the shops,” he said.
Announcing a series of relaxations in the district during the third phase of the lockdown, the Gurugram administration has allowed the liquor shops to open in the non-containment zones from 7am to 7pm.
Meanwhile, the government has imposed a variable Covid cess on all types of liquor to support areas and institutions, which have been adversely hit by the pandemic. A Covid cess of Rs 50 will be levied on a bottle greater than 375 ML of Imported Foreign Liquor (IFL), Rs 5 for strong beer, Rs 2 for other beer and Rs 5 per quarter in case of country liquor, and Rs 20 per quarter for Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL).
Many people alleged that they were overcharged and same brand was sold at different prices at different shops.
Aruna Singh, deputy excise and taxation officer (East), said, “The Haryana government’s excise policy has fixed the minimum selling price (MSP) of liquor, but there is no cap on maximum price. As a result, liquor prices vary from outlet to outlet. “The concept of not standardising retail price gives a free hand to the vend to sell at their will,” Singh said.
H C Dahiya, deputy excise and taxation officer (West), said they had deployed teams and ensured that one official of excise department was deployed at each liquor vend. “After the situation went out of control in Delhi, we had planned to mark circles for people to stand outside the shops. Also, we had given strict instructions to the shopkeepers that if anyone found entertaining violators, their licences will be cancelled,” Dahiya said.
The excise officials had to take a call on capping the number of bottles per person, after some people were seen buying in bulk. In many areas, people were seen buying more than 100 bottles at a time, including beer cases, the officials said.
Singh said as per the tentative sales figures, IMFL and beer bottles worth Rs 1 crore were sold, while Imported Foreign Liquor was sold for nearly Rs 10 lakh from New Gurugram areas like Sohna Road, Golf Course Road and Golf Course Extension Road.
According to the police, some people even visited wholesale shops thinking that they would get some discounts, but they were asked to buy only 36 bottles per person.
At most of the shops, the owners had put up steel and the bamboo barrier to maintain queues and had hired security personnel to ensure social distancing.
Muhammad Akil, commissioner of police, said, “More than 25 police personnel were deployed at each liquor shop and 10 more outside the road to control traffic congestion and wrong parking. The situation was well controlled and no one was found violating the guidelines of lockdown,” he said.
