Kerala will soon have more bars functioning next door to protected locations such as educational institutions, religious places of worship, and SC/ST colonies.
The government has drastically reduced the mandatory distance between four-star and above bars and such “inviolable” sites from the relatively prohibitive 200 m offset to a more permissive 50 m setback.
The move has triggered a State-wide scramble to upgrade hotels to four-star and above status in a bid to get a slice of the lucrative liquor business pie.
The Opposition has portrayed the contentious decision as one which unabashedly kowtows to the liquor industry. Prohibitionists, chiefly clerics, have raised the spectre of increased alcohol abuse and its resultant social and familial ills.
Kerala has the highest per capita consumption of liquor in the country. Its economy is largely tourism based. Hence, the liquor policies of its successive governments have always been at the centre of the State’s electoral politics and a focal point of public debate.
Officials said the Taxes Secretary had promulgated the order on the basis of Excise Commissioner Rishiraj Singh’s recommendation.
However, Mr. Singh told The Hindu that the Excise Department was “neither for or against reducing the distance” between bars and protected sites. The government had made the decision after due consideration. He had no personal say in the matter.
Government sources said that the 200 m offset from protected sites had originally not applied to high-end bar hotels. Four-star, five-star and heritage hotels were brought under the ambit of the rule by the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government, which had towards the end of its term pursued an aggressive pro-prohibitionist policy by shutting down bars and closing State-run liquor vends to drastically reduce the availability of legal liquor.
Krishnadas Polakulam, advisory committee member, Kerala Bar Hotel Association (KBHA), said the industry welcomed the decision. It would open the door for more investment in the State’s hotel and tourism industry and generate employment at multiple levels. The 200 m distance offset for bars was also impractical given the State’s space scarcity.
