Qila Mohalla residents object to opening of liquor vend
Residents of Qila Mohalla and Khingra Gate were up in arms against liquor contractors on Thursday, who came to open a new vend in the internal lane of the locality.
As this happened, men and women from the localities put up tents and started a dharna in front of the site. Residents alerted the leaders of all parties about the protest and sought their support. Some Congress councillors, ex-BJP MLA KD Bhandari and AAP halqa incharge Dinesh Dhall reached the venue on their call.
Residents Geeta, Meenu, Shashi, Sharda, Tanvi, Niyati and Shalu handed over a memorandum to the leaders and Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner of the zone. They said since Mata Vaishno Devi Temple and Sain Dass School are closeby, they will not allow the vend to open.
Bhandari said he called ETO Aman Puri and urged him to intervene. He said, "The contractor had said he only wanted to open a branch of the main vend while this is not feasible as per law. So we got a clear direction issued to the contractor from excise officials of not picking that site."
Dhall said, "No one will object to the opening of a vend on a main road or a chowk but he cannot enter old, traditional and congested mohallas. The girls and women will get harassed. So we all managed to convince the contractor got him moved out of the site".
