MARGAO
Addressing a media briefing in Margao on Sunday, State BJP general secretary and spokesperson Damu Naik said the government must conduct a survey of the number of bars within 500 metres of the ambit of national and state highways, even as he pegged the number of families affected by the SC order in the State at 50,000.
Naik claimed the existence of 2000 wholesale liquor vendors and more than 13,000 licence holding bars within the ambit of 500 metres of the national and state highways in the State. “Although many bypasses have been constructed in the State and traffic diverted along these bypasses, the internal roads which functioned as national highways in the absence of these bypasses have not yet been de-notified,” he told mediapersons.
The implementation of the order from April 1, Naik said, has been generalised for all the States after considering the petition filed by a petitioner from Haryana. “Other stakeholder States are not made parties to this. There has not been any actual survey of the number of bars which will be affected by the SC order in the State,” he remarked.
Naik also informed that this issue has been mentioned in BJP’s manifesto, even as he expressed confidence
about finding a solution to this issue after forming the government in the State in March this year. He appealed to the affected people not to panic in view of this order.
