Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Jul 3: In what appears to be a mockery of the Supreme Court directive asking states to close down liquor outlets functioning near national and state highways, a bar and restaurant located in the heart of Nelyadi town in the taluk that stands right on national highway 75 has been functioning normally. The locals are now preparing to complain to the department at the open defiance of the court order, although most of such businesses across the state stopped dealing in liquor with effect from Friday midnight.

As per the Supreme Court orders, businesses dealing in liquor cannot function within 500 metres of national highways. In tune with this order, only licences of those bars which made alternative arrangement to fall in line with this order, were renewed. A large number of such bars, wine shops, clubs etc have downed their shutters. The people are taken by surprise at the fact that this particular bar and restaurant is being allowed to function normally by the officials of the department who seem to be purposefully looking the other way.

Many locals are of the opinion that the excise department has joined hands with the owners of this liquor outlet to see that it is able to do business from its current position by the side of national highway. Apparently the bar has made an effort to hoodwink the legal system. For this purpose, the bar has created an alternative path to reach it. It has closed its front door and started doing business from backdoor. The alternative way to the bar now passes from near Swamy Gurunarayana Mandir here, although the Supreme Court has clearly said hat liquor vending businesses should be away from centres of prayer too, the devotees of the Mandir complain.

The new path to the bar was created all of a sudden on June 30. For crossing a drain that is located on this path, pieces of areca nut trunk have been lined up. It is said that when some locals approached excise department officials about this blatant deviation, they explained that the bar has already applied for renewal of licence after confirming that the unit conforms to the distance condition from the highway.

People of Nelyadi and nearby villages including women and organizations have decided to file a complaint with the department and government against this wrongdoing. If this method does not evoke proper response, they also plan to take to streets to hold protest. President of Puttur taluk Janajagruti Vedike, Padmanabha Shetty, Nelyady zonal unit president of the Vedike, Ravichandra Gowda Hosavoklu, convener of local unit of Hindu Jagran Vedike, Raviprasad Shetty etc have insisted that the owners of the bar have to stick to the order of the Supreme Court.