Drinking in public to land you behind bars

A quick drink in your car or near a wine shop will land you in trouble from next week. Delhi's new excise act, which entails strict laws to curb drinking on the roadside, is likely to be implemented from Monday. Atul Mathur reports.

A quick drink in your car or near a wine shop will land you in trouble from next week. Delhi's new excise act, which entails strict laws to curb drinking on the roadside, is likely to be implemented from Monday.

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Senior excise department officials said the Lieutenant Governor has already given a go-ahead to the excise rules and regulations. With its notification on Monday, anyone caught drinking in public will have to shell out at least R5,000 and can even be put behind the bars.

"We are giving final touches to the rules of Delhi Excise Act 2010. We hope the rules are notified on Monday and the act is finally implemented," Delhi excise minister Ashok Kumar Walia said.

Walia said the government was keen to notify the act at the earliest.

However, notification of the new act is not going to affect liquor prices in the Capital for the time being.

With this act, the Delhi Government also wanted to revise prices of both country made as well as Indian Made Foreign Liquor and imported liquor in the Capital. However, inability to decide to what extent the rates should be increased has forced Delhi government to postpone revision of liquor prices.