Hotels, pubs near Punjab’s highways can serve liquor

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 19

The Punjab Council of Ministers, led by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, today formally exempted hotels, restaurants and clubs from the restrictions imposed (on the Supreme Court orders) on serving liquor within 500 metres of highways.

The Cabinet approved a proposal to amend Section 26-A of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914, for fixing the location of liquor vends on national and state highways, thus removing hotels, restaurants and clubs from the list.

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By amending the Act, all ambiguities in serving of liquor would be removed by adding provisions whereby it is cleared that no retail vend would be opened within 500 metres of national and state highways, but these restrictions shall not apply to hotels, restaurants and clubs situated on the highways.

The Cabinet gave a go-ahead to the draft amendment Bill, 2017, in this regard, which will be tabled during the current Budget session for enactment.

Meanwhile, to improve and synchronise the online grievances redress mechanism for effective citizen service delivery, the Cabinet approved restructuring of the departments of Governance Reforms and Removal of Grievances by merging them and renaming the merged entity as the Department of Governance Reforms and Public Grievances.

It also approved the proposal  for amending the Punjab Municipal Fund Act, 2006, and Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Fund Act, 2011, to pave the way for implementation of the Punjab State Goods and Service Tax Bill, 2017.