WHAT AN IDEA!
Once notified as Cluster Towns, the outlets falling under the specified areas will be automatically excluded from the ambit of the SC order
IDEA INVENTORS
Three-member committee
* Vijai Sardesai (Goa Forward Party)
* Francis D'Souza (BJP)
* Rohan Khaunte (Independent)
MISSION 'HIGH'WAY
The committee was formed to provide relief to liquor outlets affected by the 2016 order of the SC which banned sale of alcohol within 500 meters of state and national highways
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PANAJI: The three-member committee headed by Mapusa MLA Francis D’Souza decided to give relief to around 1021 liquor licence holders, whose licences were not renewed after the Supreme Court order banning the sale of liquor along highways in April last year.
The committee which met for the second time on Wednesday decided to ask the excise department to grant the licences of those licence holders who fall within ‘cluster towns’ and areas in close proximity to the municipal bodies.
“We had asked them (Excise Department) to give us a break up of the number of licences in Goa which fall under the category of cluster towns, which are covered by the outline development plans which are covered by those areas and those village panchayats which are very proximate to municipal areas -- corporations or councils,” Vijai Sardesai a member of the committee who spoke on behalf of the committee to media persons, said.
Of the total 1332 licences which still stand cancelled around 1021can be treated as “sufficiently developed areas which are proximate to municipal areas” Sardesai said leaving around 300 licences without any relief.
“Among these 300 some could yet get relief as they could have been overlooked for several reasons like the constitution of new PDAs. There is an announcement of a Mopa PDA already but areas which are coming in the domain are not counted for this purpose as on this date. So we have not considered them,” Sardesai said.
The committee which met for the first time last week had asked excise commissioner to prepare a report on the number of liquor licence holders who continue to be affected by the Supreme Court order: which are falling in a census town, which are not and another category wise giving an idea over how many can be saved.
The Government of Goa had constituted a committee of three cabinet minister headed by Francisco Souza, Minister of Urban Development and Law, Vijai Sardesai and Rohan Khaunte as members to recommend parameters based on which the areas could be declared as similar to municipal town for implementing the recent judgement of the Supreme Court as well as the criteria for grant of licences for the retails sale of liquor in such areas.
The government has been receiving several representations from retail liquor shop owners, restaurateurs and others in whose cases the licence of retails sale of liquor has not been renewed pursuant to the judgement of the Supreme Court of India.
The representations are seeking to declare certain areas contiguous with towns and municipalities as "urban areas" for the purpose of implementing orders of the SC and granting relief to the affected licencees of retail sale of liquor.
The Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice Dipak Misra and judges Amitava Roy and Dr DY Chandrachud, ruled that it was open for the state governments to determine whether the principle laid down by the Supreme Court in its order of July 11, 2017 (which decreed that the ban on sale of liquor would not apply to municipal areas) would not be precluded.
“We leave it open to individual licensees to submit their representations to the competent authorities in the state governments if they are so advised upon which appropriate decisions may be taken by the state governments.We leave it open to individual licensees to submit their representations to the competent authorities in the state governments if they are so advised upon which appropriate decisions may be taken by the state governments,” the Supreme Court order had said.
