the goan I network
PANAJI
The three minister committee constituted by the government headed by Francisco Souza, Minister of Urban Development and Law, Vijai Sardesai and Rohan Khaunte as members met on Wednesday to recommend parameters based on which the sale of liquor along highways in villages could also be allowed.
Speaking to reporters, Urban Development Minister Francis D’Souza who heads the committee said that the excise commissioner has been asked to prepare a report on the number of liquor licence holders who continue to be affected by the Supreme Court order, which are in census town, and which are not giving an idea over how many can be saved.
The plan, according to those present in the meeting is to save as many liquor licences by ensuring that maximum areas, if not the whole state can be declared as ‘urban’ for the purpose of sale of liquor along the highways.
While the next meeting will be held in a week’s time, the final report of the committee is expected to be ready in a month’s time.
The government has been receiving several representations from retail liquor shop owners, restaurateurs and others in whose cases the licence of retail sale of liquor has not been renewed pursuant to the Supreme Court judgement.
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, in February, had further diluted the ban on sale of liquor along highways and has virtually given the go-ahead for liquor shops and bars to come up along highways if the state government is of the opinion that the villages that they fall in are sufficiently urbanised to be treated on par with municipal bodies.
The Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice Dipak Misra and judges Amitava Roy and Dr D Y 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 SC order had said.
