Highway or high way?

It pays to have a Chief Minister who hails from the land of ‘Patiala Peg’, doesn’t it? By amending the section 26-A of Punjab Excise Act, 1914, Punjab became the first State to make way for liquor sale near national and state highways. The Assembly, on Friday, passed a legislation enabling hotels, restaurants, and clubs to serve alcohol within 500 metres of highways.

However, the act does not apply to the liquor vends on highways. For Chandigarh though, there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip as it eagerly awaits a nod from the Ministry of Home Affairs on the issue of liquor ban.

But, we have a bit of a ‘good cop, bad cop’ situation here. How good would it be for the city to have the liquor ban lifted?

Public’s still drinking?

The good cop feels that post the amendment several are hailing Punjab government as the ‘welfare’ state—only the welfare stands redefined. The moral police, road safety activists, and the law-abiding citizens are worried over the celebrations around highway. When did having to travel a few hundred metres extra ever deter those who love their liquor? “We are concerned with the enforcement of rules on the roads. Drunken driving is illegal and it will still be, irrespective of the availability of liquor. We have the nakas regularly and offenders will be caught, whether you make it 100 or 200 metres. If liquor is available readily, more people are tempted to drink irresponsibly,” says Dilsher Singh, Traffic Inspector Administration, Chandigarh Traffic Police.

The bad cop takes on the car-o-bar culture (the art of drinking alcohol and teaming it up with ‘bird-watching’ at geri route)! Last month, on their special drive against liquor consumption in public places, the UT police arrested 38 persons reportedly, and the menace of drinking in public is rampant in markets of Sector 8 and 9.

Loss-loss situation

Vipul Dua, owner of Peddlers in Sector 35, 26, and now in Elante, shares that he will soon open a quick-service restaurant called Mrs Wong’s in Sector 8. “Peddlers is down by 95 per cent sales. We are still doing live acoustic gigs, paying the staff, and electricity bills, but there’s no profit. Normally, we make 25 per cent margin, but now we are struggling to breakeven,” he says.

Good night, owls!

Manish Goyal, who brushed aside his plan to open Social in Chandigarh and currently owns Satva, Swagat, and S-cafe, shares that Punjab’s government has set a precedent and that Chandigarh must follow suit. “In the last three months, Chandigarh has changed its way of dining out. We would have people coming from different parts of Punjab for their couple kitty parties, where they would drink responsibly, but not anymore. At restaurants, the price of alcohol is high, so people tend to drink less or get an Uber to go back, but with car-o-bar, they drink while driving. Where’s the point in that?” he asks.

Where do we go?

Amritanshu, who opened microbrewery The Great Bear in December 2016, says, “Punjab has taken a bold and correct step. Most restaurants are located in Sector 26, 35, and 43 of Chandigarh. Also, most people are either going to places in Mohali or Panchkula to drink. How far is that from Chandigarh now?” Neeraj, the owner of Ministry of Bar Exchange shares that he incurred 6-7 lakh worth losses. “We have to pay rent, and staff. We spare 1-2 lakh for internet, and our sales are based on an app. It’s a huge loss and I am already gearing up for The Billionares Club at City Emporium mall to make up for the losses,” he says.

The law and its loopholes

Despite 68 review applications pending before the SC, it gave a clear no to liquor within 500 metres of highways. “Punjab government didn’t put any review application back then and now coming up with a parallel plan is a clear violation of SC’s guidelines,” opines Harman Singh Sidhu, a road-safety activist, whose petition started it all. “Even earlier, there were violations as liquor vends were tampered to fit into the description of restaurants. But this act has diluted the spirit of the Act.” He says, “An RTI application yielded information from Excise department as to how each year there has been an increase of 10 per cent target in sale of liquor.”