In violation of court order, liquor vends dot highway

Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 30

Though the state government is contemplating knocking the doors of the Madhya Pradesh High Court to get a ban on the cultivation of poppy husk, it itself is “allowing” illegal liquor vends on the National Highway-71 in Punjab.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court in its order dated March 18, 2014, had directed the state that liquor vends should neither be visible nor accessible on the national highways.

The 44-km stretch of the NH-71 between Jalandhar and Bajwa Kalan, near Shahkot, however, has 16 liquor vends.

In a reply to an RTI query, the PWD (B&R) department has stated that liquor vends dot the NH after every 3 km.

The NH-71, which passes from Jalandhar to Barnala and enters Jind in Haryana, has a large number of such liquor vends.

“Though the Excise Department denies it, the PWD (B&R) admits that liquor is sold along the NH despite the high court’s ban on these,” said Chandigarh-based NGO ArriveSAFE’s president Harman Sidhu, who got this reply under the RTI yesterday.

He added that not only are there liquor vends on the NH-71, which is maintained by the PWD (B&R) of Punjab, but three more liquor vends have come up on the Bathinda-Muktsar-Jalalabad road.

Despite a hue and cry over the rising number of road accidents due to drunken driving, the government continues to “allow” (illegally) the opening of liquor vends on the highways, he said. He alleged that the government wanted to cash in on the revenue generated from the sale of liquor.

“As per studies, the easy availability of liquor leads to the rise in its consumption, especially while driving,” Sidhu said.

He said in a recent study by the PGIMER, Chandigarh, it was found that 109 out of the 200 drivers admitted in the trauma care following road accidents were under the influence of liquor.

State Excise and Taxation Commissioner Anurag Aggarwal, when questioned, said he would ask the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (DETC), Jalandhar, to look into the matter. When contacted, Jalandhar DETC Sarojini Gautam said she had no idea about the coming up of such liquor vends. She said she would enquire about the court’s directions and check the presence of vends.

Later in the evening, ETO (Excise and Taxation) Jalandhar-II Sukhwinder Singh called up and claimed that most of the liquor vends on the NH-71 had been made inaccessible and invisible as per the court orders.

“There might be some discrepancies which we will remove soon. Overall, the liquor vends are allotted as per the court’s fresh guidelines,” he claimed.