No new liquor vends being allotted in J&K, says Omar
After reports that the J&K government was planning to open new liquor vends in the UT, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah stated that these reports were fake.
“No new liquor vends are being advertised or allowed by my government. TV channels and news portals should immediately stop peddling this lie,” he stated on X.
In a statement on X, he said, “...305 vends (wine shops) were put to e-auction on 15-2-2025 and after the culmination of the bidding process, 271 vends got allotted through the e-auction process (conducted by J&K Bank) to the successful H1 bidders and rest of the 34 locations were being put to re-auction through public notice.”
He further stated that the number of JKEL-2 vends remained unchanged i.e. 305, since FY 2023-24 and there is no increase in any vend either in Jammu or Kashmir. There are 291 vends in Jammu and 14 in Kashmir.
“All details regarding the Excise Policy along with the location of the vends is available on the official website of the Excise Department. Therefore, the news being circulated in social media regarding increase in number of vends is fake/baseless,” the CM said.
