New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has allowed the opening of liquor shops across the state as the extended lockdown kicked in, irrespective of zones. Excise is a major revenue generator for the state, second only after GST collections. The April revenue has been abysmal because of the stringent lockdown across the state and the rest of India. On Monday morning, long lines were seen at liquor shops in Lucknow as they opened up at 10 am.
As per new Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines, standalone liquor shops will be allowed to open in some areas from May 4 in light of relaxations given in the new phase of the lockdown. Sale of liquor will be allowed with certain conditions in all zones, barring containment areas, in standalone shops, not in markets or malls.
Several states have allowed the sale of liquor, paan and tobacco from neighbourhood shops that are not in a commercial complex. While most of us had planned that after finishing up our work, we would go in the evening and get our favourite bottle of gin and whiskey, it turns out that for a major chunk of the people, waiting till the evening wasn’t an option.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Delhi, people stood in a line that was as long as about half a kilometre to get their hands on some booze.
One sad thing that has become apparent, is the sorry state of social distancing norms in these lines. As per the guidelines that the central government has announced, a minimum of six feet’s distance has to be maintained, and no more than 5 people should stand in the queue in front of the shop. Yeah, right, as if that was ever going to happen.
UP excise department authorities have announced that standalone liquor shops will be allowed to open in all areas in the state except containment zones in red zones.
Authorities also clarified that alcohol sale will not be permitted at hotels and restaurants.However, all necessary measures will be taken to ensure social distancing is followed. Only five people will be allowed to buy liquor from a shop at one time.
The third phase of the countrywide lockdown begins Monday with “considerable relaxations”, but curbs will continue in containment areas so that the gains achieved so far in the fight against COVID-19 are not “squandered away”, officials said Sunday.
The country has been divided into three zones — Red, Orange and Green – based on coronavirus risk-profiling. The extended lockdown is slated to last till May 17.
Uttar Pradesh currently has 19 Red Zone districts, 36 Orange Zone districts and 20 Green Zone districts. (You can find full list of red, orange and green zones in your state here.)
This means that people in cities like Agra, Lucknow, Saharanpur, Kanpur, Moradabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Meerut, which all fall under red zone districts, will be able to buy alcohol from tomorrow if they live in non-containment zones.
