HALDWANI: Lalkuan city in Nainital district became the first to take up the cudgels against mobile liquor vans in the state. The chairman of the Lalkuan Nagar panchayat has asked the van not to sell liquor there.
Following the Supreme Court’s recent order removing liquor shops within 500 metres of national highways, the state government had asked the licensees to shift their shops to other areas. But women’s groups insist that wine shops simply should not be opened in residential areas. Unable to open liquor shops at many places where women have been staging dharnas, the state government allowed licensees to sell liquor through vans or pickup trucks in such areas.
Lalkuan Nagar Panchayat chairman Ram Babu Gupta reached the Lalkuan market on Thursday evening and had asked the liquor van operators to go away. He even had a tiff with the operators.
Gupta is of the view that it would be embarrassing for the city. He has however agreed to let the allottee take up a shop or land from the Nagar Palika for setting up a liquor shop instead of running a mobile liquor van.
Elections are due in the Lalkuan Nagar Panchayat in April 2018 and politicians do not want to take a chance on any issue. Gupta denied that his decision has any political implications. “We asked them not to sell liquor on our (Nagar Panchayat) premises. They did not take our permission and all our matters have to be put up at the board meeting for approval,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Elections are due in the Lalkuan Nagar Panchayat in April 2018 and politicians do not want to take a chance on any issue. Gupta denied that his decision has any political implications. “We asked them not to sell liquor on our (Nagar Panchayat) premises. They did not take our permission and all our matters have to be put up at the board meeting for approval,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The first such pickup truck selling Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) has started selling alcohol at the Ranibagh area in Haldwani which is attracting a steady stream of buyers.
The pickup vehicle was stationed at Ranibagh after people from Bhujiyaghat protested against shifting of the liquor shop to their area. Also, the vehicle in Ranibagh was stationed at a particular place and did not move in the area.