The Excise Department is finding its hands full these days with the government revising its liquor policy. Bar owners and tipplers are facing uncertain times and their confusion has spilled over into illegal activities and brawls near bars in the city.
Excise and police officers had to deal with several scenes of tension outside bars here last week. One of the cases registered involved a bar owner who decided to sell beer wholesale to customers rather than wait for the government to buy back the bottles. The sudden sale at cheap prices caused a flutter among tipplers, who flocked to the watering hole near Kathrikadavu to buy cheap liquor while it lasted. Excise officials soon caught wind of the sale and shut it down. “The bar was licensed, but they were worried about the imminent shutdown. You can’t blame them. They had stocked up for the Onam season and now they will lose all that business,” said a sympathetic Excise official.
Yet another instance involved an angry tippler who couldn’t find his favourite brand of drink at his usual bar that had been shut. He went into the liquor outlet to find that they didn’t have the particular brand either. The unsatisfied customer flew into a rage and began abusing the staff. For the police, the incident foretells the difficult times ahead for tipplers and them.
Laughing over a hoax
Traffic around Edappally region was brought to a dead stop recently when LuLu mall received a bomb hoax. Teams of police, bomb disposal and dog squads descended on the mall to search for bombs. That the call came in on a day when a former President was in the city only added to the police’s tension.
But for people inside and outside the mall, the threat seemed to be an occasion for mirth. People being evacuated immediately laughed the whole exercise off as a hoax. Many others milled outside, trying to get in to see what was happening. “We had a tough time controlling the crowd. Everyone wanted to get in even as we were trying to get people out of harm’s way,” said a police officer. For staff at the many stores in the mall, the shutdown was a rare occasion when they could to get back home before the sun went down.