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Odisha’s order to sell liquor online flouted in Bhubaneswar, people queue up outside stores
Despite the government order that liquor can be ordered only through online and delivered by delivery platforms Zomato or Swiggy to buyers, hundreds of people queued up in front of IMFL outlets in the state capital on Monday.
Odisha government’s order of selling liquor online went for a toss as people gathered in large numbers at several liquor shops in Bhubaneswar on Monday, flouting the government notification.
The State Excise department in a notification on Saturday said that home delivery of liquor will be allowed by existing Indian Made Foreign Liquor outlets in areas other than Covid containment zones and shopping malls. A ‘special Covid fee’, amounting to 50% over the MRP of the liquor was to be charged to generate additional revenue for the state government.
There had been a complete ban on sale of liquor in the state for the past two months during lockdown before the state government allowed online sale from May 24.
Despite the government order that liquor can be ordered only through online and delivered by delivery platforms Zomato or Swiggy to buyers, hundreds of people queued up in front of IMFL outlets in the state capital on Monday.
The reasons for the long queues varied from people not registering online to some who didn’t want their families to know they drank.
“Though the government has said liquor can be sold online, we can’t risk ordering it as our family members would know about our drinking if the liquor was delivered at home. I had ordered liquor online, but I came to the liquor outlet to collect it myself,” said a buyer, who outside a liquor store.
Several others who stood in the lines were those who had not registered online, till police intervened to stop the offline sale.
Later in the day, police and excise department in Bhubaneswar had a meeting in which it was decided that no IMFL outlet will sell liquor offline.
However, in other areas of the state, IMFL outlets remained closed for buyers and liquor was being sold through online.
Meanwhile, a resident of Bhubaneswar fell prey to cyber fraud, losing Rs 1.36 lakh after placing an online order for liquor. Anjan Barik came across a post on the Internet that claimed to take orders for home delivery of liquor from a shop named Kadambari. When Barik called the number shared in the post, the receiver asked him to pay Rs 200 through PhonePe.
When he sent Rs 200 to the PhonePe account, the person at the other end sent him a barcode and asked him to scan it. When Barik scanned the barcode, a sum of Rs 1.36 lakh was deducted from his bank account in four phases. Later, he lodged a complaint with Mancheswar police.
In another such incident, a banker in Bhubaneswar was duped of Rs 19,000 after placing an online order for liquor last month.
