Panaji: A recent notification issued by the Union Ministry for Roads, Transport, Highways and Shipping will lead to closure of 90% of the State’s liquor outlets, the Congress said on Friday. The Ministry had upgraded 21 major roads to highways in January this year in the State.
Recently, the Supreme Court had recently banned bars located within 500 metres of highways. Demanding an immediate withdrawal of the Ministry’s notification, Congress Goa president Luizinho Faleiro demanded that the State government lobby aggressively with the Centre to ensure that liquor outlet and bar owners do not suffer.
Speaking to reporters at the Congress State headquarters, Mr. Falerio said, “90% major roads in Goa are now State and national highways because of the notification. It will affect 7,000 to 8,000 liquor outlets in the State. This will bring misery to people and the government is simply not bothered.”
However, declining to comment on any political statement, State Excise Commissioner Menino D’Souza, who is heading the special high level committee set up to identify the liquor outlets at the highways, told The Hindu on Friday, “We are going as per highway authority list submitted to us regarding four national and eight State highways.”
He added, “We have identified around almost 3,200 outlets so far, of nearly 11,000 excise licence holders in the State authorised to sell liquor, within the 500 metres of highways. The final report is yet to be prepared.”
Mr. Faleiro said, “Earlier, the official survey of liquor outlets revealed that around 3200-3500 outlets would be directly affected, but now the number would be much more.”
He accused the Union Ministry of arbitrarily taking the decision to upgrade the major roads in the State to the status of highways.
Mr. Faleiro also condemned the Central government by saying, “They cannot take decisions like this, which are not only arbitrary, and high-handed, [but] draconian. [The decision] will destroy the livelihood of 90% of the bars and restaurants of Goa."
