Three days after over 3000 alcohol vends shut down shutters, following the Supreme Court decision, the fear of the ban on alcohol sale along the highways is not just of tourism in the State getting hit badly but of the number of people who will be unemployed following the closure of the businesses. Goa is facing the threat of mass unemployment in the coming days as thousands of people will shut down their businesses and a lot many others will lose their jobs. Many of the businesses have been run for decades, by generations of the same family and the sudden closure cuts off their only means of livelihood.
The numbers cannot yet be ascertained, for what the Excise Department did was conduct a survey of alcohol vends – wholesale, retail and bars – along highways and up to 500 metres from highways to reach a figure of upwards of 3000. What is not part of that survey is the number of people employed in these listed alcohol vends that, will easily run into a few thousands.
It is already three days that these outlets, surveyed by the Excise Departmetn, have been closed, and there is little hope that all of them will be reopened. In the meantime, all the government is doing is promise to reduce the number of businesses that will remain closed by employing the amendment to the December 16 order of the Supreme Court that allows States to reduce the distance to 220 metres from the highway from 500, in such towns where the population is less than 20,000. While traders say this will give relief to about a third of the outlets that are currently closed, it still means that over 2000 liquor vends will have to close down their shutters permanently in the State.
But, an unanswered question is whether this relief given by the Supreme Court will be applicable to the entire State. Before the SC could amend its original order with the 220 metre rule, the State had placated a section of the liquor vend owners by stating that only retail outlets would be closed, and the ruling was not applicable to wholesalers and bars. The SC, in its second ruling was very clear that its ruling included all these, even starred hotels. The government needs to interpret the order correctly and not try to postpone the inevitable by assurances based on nuances. This is what it did in the past few months, giving bars and restaurants false hope.
Its options now are limited. In the past weeks, there was proffered the option of denotification of the highways, so that alcohol traders can reopen their business, though the government had not displayed any willingness to do that. Now, after the amended SC judgement of March 31, traders are demanding that Goa be accorded the exemption that Meghalaya and Sikkim have got.
If Goa has not been able get any relief for itself, it is because it was not represented in the SC, when the apex court heard the petitions seeking modifications to its December 15, 2016 order on banning the sale of alcohol along highways. While Himachal Pradesh got some relief from the Supreme Court, and Meghalaya and Sikkim have been exempted from the ban, Goa’s case was not presented to the court and the traders are now demanding that the State file a review petition.
There was enough time for Goa to have joined the other States and liquor traders associations that had petitioned for a review of the December 15, 2016 SC order. As a responsible government it should have stood by the people who had voted for it. The government failed to protect the people’s livelihood. It is now not merely the sale of liquor along highways that is the vital consideration, it is the loss of jobs and livelihoods of the people of Goa, and their protection. The government has to act urgently on the matter, otherwise it could well go the way the mining operations ban prolonged for years.
