Cong leader seeks closure of liquor vends

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 1

Municipal councillor and senior Congress leader Jagroop Singh Gill has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking the closure of liquor vends in Gopal Nagar and on the Gurukul road.

The High Court has accepted the PIL and set December 13 for the hearing of the case.

Jagroop Gill has made the state of Punjab a party in the PIL through its Principal Secretary, Excise and Taxation Department; Deputy Commissioner, Bathinda; SDM Bathinda; Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Bathinda; Excise and Taxation Officer, Bathinda; DSP City, SHO Canal Colony police station, then SDM Damanjit Singh Mann, who is now posted as RTA Jalandhar, Ravinder Singh Romana, then ETO Bathinda; Balwinder Singh, then Excise Inspector, Bathinda; Davinder Singh Brar, then DSP and M/s Gagan and Ekam wine through its partners Amarjit Mehta and Ranjit Singh Deol.

The councillor said the main motive of filing the PIL was to save locals and school children from consuming liquor.

He said a liquor vend was opened on the Gurukul road for the year 2015-16 and it was allotted to Mehta Company.

Residents of Gopal Nagar staged a protest against the opening of the liquor vend and after some days, the protest took the shape of an agitation.

On June 5, last year, a meeting was held in which certain assurances were given by the officials concerned to the residents.

Next day, a meeting of the residents and officials of the Excise and Taxation Department was held at the SDM office. A memorandum of understanding was signed between residents and the administration in which it was decided that the liquor vend would be lifted from its current position after March 31.

Even on March 2, Jagroop Gill and councillor Nirmal Kaur submitted a representation to the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Bathinda, with a request not to auction the liquor vend keeping in view the memorandum of understanding.

He also alleged that instead of closing a liquor vend opposite Arjun Nagar, officials not only auctioned the liquor vend, but also auctioned another liquor vend in the residential areas of Gopal Nagar and Jogi Nagar, which was also near to Gurdwara Shaheed Bhai Deep Singh Ji and temple Baba Shree Ram Dev.

The Congress councillor alleged that the officials had failed to keep their promise. Officials concerned are wreaking havoc on the lives of inhabitants of these areas by not closing these disputed liquor vends, he added.