Excise Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan has dubbed as baseless a campaign that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has diluted the distance norm for bar hotels near educational and other institutions.
Mr. Ramakrishnan said in a statement here on Friday that the distance for running bar hotels had been reduced from 200 metres to 50 metres from educational institutions, places of worships, Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe colonies, and burial grounds only for four and five star hotels.
The 200-metre norm still holds in the case of all other bar hotels, vends of Consumerfed, and Kerala State Beverages Corporation. The distance for toddy shops continued to be 400 metres. But there was a campaign that the distance for all liquor outlets had been reduced.
The public is aware of the manner in which four star hotels and those graded above function. Their clients are mostly foreign and domestic tourists from other States. The change in distance norm would not have any bearing on the public and only a very small number of hotels would be benefited by reviving the condition that was in force till 2012. The former government increased the distance to help all existing licensees, he said. The Ramachandran commission appointed by the UDF government for preparing the excise policy had recommended to reduce the distance for all hotels from three star upwards to 50 metres and said that the 200-metre norm was outdated.
