Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar offered to amend the law governing state highways in a bid to exclude the roads within the towns as state highways, while for shops along national highways he mooted the idea for visual barriers to bypass the Supreme Court directives.
Replying to the discussion on the demands for grants to the Excise Department, Parrikar said several measures have already been taken to provide relief to the affected licence holders.
"We can consider raising sound and visual barriers -- through this the approach distance can be increased to 500 metres. We will have to study this," Parrikar suggested.
He said that national highway denotification was not in his hands hence such methods would have to be adopted.
"I've written to Surface Transport minister to denotify the national highways. He has not responded. I will follow it up," Parrikar said.
"The State Highways Act is being amended. If it goes through the town, it will not be state highway. The state highway will end at the start of the town and restart as it exits the town. It was national recommendation that was not followed up on. I can bring the state highway amendment on Monday itself. That will solve the problem," Parrikar said.
"Curchorem and Sanguem will escape, Ponda can escape," Parrikar said.
He also added that he has already decided to calculate the distance according to the approach road and not as the crow flies, which has given relief to around 300-400 liquor licence holders.
There were demands from several legislators to provide relief especially from Carlos Almeida who rued the fact that the entire stretch of highway from Cortalim to Sada had become a dry zone and could be given relief on the lines that Punjab has done for itself.
Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes rued how the SC order has affected many families right from Karmal ghat to Polem.
"Because we are close to the border there were a lot of shops. Because of the border exchange people used to come fill their petrol tanks, then fill their own tanks and drive back. They have been doing this for more than 100 years. Please offer them some relief so that their livelihood is safeguarded," Isidore said.
The issue was also raised by Digambar Kamat who pointed out that the highway passes right through Margao which had affected the city, while Pratapsingh Rane said that Punjab got away with denotifying the highways.
Mandrem MLA Dayanand Sopte, while raising the issue of highway bars, questioned how liquor manufactured in Goa was being smuggled out of the state and vehicles were being caught in Maharashtra.
"The same vehicle numbers are being repeatedly caught," Sopte said.
Replying to the discussion on the demands for grants to the Excise Department, Parrikar said several measures have already been taken to provide relief to the affected licence holders.
"We can consider raising sound and visual barriers -- through this the approach distance can be increased to 500 metres. We will have to study this," Parrikar suggested.
He said that national highway denotification was not in his hands hence such methods would have to be adopted.
"I've written to Surface Transport minister to denotify the national highways. He has not responded. I will follow it up," Parrikar said.
"The State Highways Act is being amended. If it goes through the town, it will not be state highway. The state highway will end at the start of the town and restart as it exits the town. It was national recommendation that was not followed up on. I can bring the state highway amendment on Monday itself. That will solve the problem," Parrikar said.
"Curchorem and Sanguem will escape, Ponda can escape," Parrikar said.
He also added that he has already decided to calculate the distance according to the approach road and not as the crow flies, which has given relief to around 300-400 liquor licence holders.
There were demands from several legislators to provide relief especially from Carlos Almeida who rued the fact that the entire stretch of highway from Cortalim to Sada had become a dry zone and could be given relief on the lines that Punjab has done for itself.
Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes rued how the SC order has affected many families right from Karmal ghat to Polem.
"Because we are close to the border there were a lot of shops. Because of the border exchange people used to come fill their petrol tanks, then fill their own tanks and drive back. They have been doing this for more than 100 years. Please offer them some relief so that their livelihood is safeguarded," Isidore said.
The issue was also raised by Digambar Kamat who pointed out that the highway passes right through Margao which had affected the city, while Pratapsingh Rane said that Punjab got away with denotifying the highways.
Mandrem MLA Dayanand Sopte, while raising the issue of highway bars, questioned how liquor manufactured in Goa was being smuggled out of the state and vehicles were being caught in Maharashtra.
"The same vehicle numbers are being repeatedly caught," Sopte said.
