the goan I network
PANAJI
The Excise Commissioner, Amit Satija, has confirmed that the state government is working on criteria to give relief to liquor outlets under the Supreme Court (SC)’s latest clarification on its liquor order.
The apex court had banned the sale of alcohol within 500 meters of national and state highways across India through its original order in December 2016. Subsequent to that, the SC has given relief on that order a number of times.
Last year, the court had observed that the order wasn’t applicable to municipalities. Now, in the latest February 2018 clarification, the court has given the leeway to state governments to decide whether the relaxation given to municipalities can be given even to adjoining areas or in areas which have the characteristics of municipalities.
A number of villages in Goa are adjoining municipal areas. At the same time, a significant number of villages in the state like Calangute and Colva have urban characteristics like high per capita, etc.
As a result, quite a few alcohol licenses, which couldn’t be renewed earlier because they were falling within 500 meters of highways and were in villages, can now be renewed. But, the exact criteria to ascertain which those licenses will be are being worked out.
Satija further said that it is not clear as of now which villages of Goa will get relief under the latest SC clarification. But, he ruled out any amendment to the state’s Excise Act for the purpose of providing relief.
Satija added, “It has not been decided as of now as to what the criteria will be, whether it will be vicinity of an area to a municipality or its population or its distance from a municipality.”
As of now, 1,345 liquor licenses have not been renewed of the overall 11,900 licenses in the state in the pursuance of the SC’s order. It is likely that some of these will be renewed to be in line with apex court’s latest clarification.
