Gurgaon: Residents demand removal of liquor vends outside 500-metre zone

A delegation of residents of Om Nagar, including women, on Friday submitted memorandums to Gurgaon MLA Umesh Agarwal, deputy commissioner Hardeep Singh and police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar demanding the removal of the vends

 Encouraged by the Supreme Court’s ban on liquor sale within 500 metres of state and national highways, the residents in areas beyond the sipulated distance have started demanding removal of liquor vends citing law and order problems and nuisance caused by the visitors, who they allege, drink in open and create a ruckus.

The liquor shop at Gurgaon’s Om Nagar that the residents wanted removed. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

Residents of Om Nagar on Friday submitted a memorandum to the district administration seeking the removal of one such liquor vend from their colony. A few days back, industrialists in Udyog Vihar had also called for removal of the liquor vend from their areas as it was leading to law and order problems.

The residents said the vend at Om Nagar is at the entrance to the colony and two major schools fall within the 100-metre zone, creating problems for students. They alleged that similar vends have opened at the corners of the market where the schoolbuses plying students from Om Nagar and Shanti Nagar park.

“Our only plea to the administration is that this vend be removed with immediate effect as it coud make living difficult in an already congested colony. People are drinking in the open and there is no one to stop them. In the evening, some of the people who come to booze at the vend harass passing girls and create and nuisance,” Ashok Yadav, a resident of the area, said.

Read I Here’s the list of Gurgaon bars, hotels that won’t serve liquor after SC ban

A delegation of residents, including women, on Friday submitted memorandums to Gurgaon MLA Umesh Agarwal, deputy commissioner Hardeep Singh and police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar demanding the removal of the vend.

Another resident, Raju, said that government should also remove unauthorised meat and fish shops operating in the area.

Even the industrialists in Udyog Vihar have decided to appeal to the Gurgaon excise department in a bid to have the liquor vend shifted from Phase 4, an industrial area.

Raj Singla, president of the industry body in Udyog Vihar, said that they will hold a protest if the license of the vend is renewed.