The debate over whether there should be less or no drunk drivers is actually not a debate but a settled aspect of civilized existence, in letter and spirit. The debate is on whether all drunk drivers on Indian highways get the source of their alcoholic sustenance from highway outlets.
And while this debate ranges on, the Supreme Court order of shutting all such outlets within 500 meters of the highways, needs to be responded to, but not by even a mistaken whiff of ay disrespect or contempt of the highest court of the land. Its orders need to be followed, but even to this date, there is work to be done. The Goa government needs to mitigate the fallout of such a decision by ensuring at the very least that the distance of 500 meters is calculated according to direct access from the highway and not by the “as the crow flies method of mapping the radius”. This kind of radius mapping is happening in Goa and this is executive unfairness. The Apex court has been very clear that this distance hadsto be mapped from the nearest point on the highway to the liquor shop through easy access.
A couple of examples will buttress this. Take the case of Prashant Wine stores in the village of Thane in Sattari. There is a mountain that separates the highway from this wine store which is on the other side and the motorable distance between the highway and the wine store in 1.5 kilometers. But those calculating the distance, from the excise department drew an imaginary line cutting through the mountains reducing the distance to 450 meters and therefore eligible for the axe. On the other extreme of Goa on the road from Canacona town to the Karnataka border there is a small river. There is one wine shop tucked in between some residential buildings, on the other side of the river, about 2 kilometres from the highway and not even visible from there. This shop too will shut, because in their wisdom the distance has been calculated as 350 meters from the highway. It’s clear that even the most spirited traveler on the highway will not even spot this wine store and if they do, the travel distance to it will be 2 kilometres.
Therefore, it must be examined whether specific amendments made to the Goa Excise act were done on the touchstone of merit or not and for this the previous AG Adv Saresh Lotlikar, who must have advised the earlier Parsekar government; needs to explain and brief to the current AG and the government; since this is an ongoing issue, why distances have not been measured based on motorable access.
Meanwhile it is also important to examine the fresh oral order (awaiting confirmation by Tuesday morning), exempting wholesale operators from the ban. Not many will put this into context or testing this against ground realities. Many among the top whole sellers are also retailers who are in possession of both the wholesale licence as well as the retail licence. They will now lose their retail license and therefore all regular customers while their wholesale licence will allow them to sell only to establishments. Therefore most whole-sellers will be stripped off their fast moving liquor business. In fact there are only about 40 wholesale traders including some who control the bulk of the liquor distribution business in North Goa, who will get real relief by the state government’s order.
The pain will be felt by the 700 plus others. The extent of the damage done to Goa can only be felt if we start counting the areas where bars and out-lets will be imply wiped off. Karaswada to Tivim, Assnora to Bicholim, Sankhalim to Valpoi upto Chorla Ghat check post, Ponda, Mollem and Dharbandora, Canacona, Margao and Vasco, the Panjim bus stand upto the post office, the whole of Porvorim upto the Patradevi check post.
The Chief Minister and the government need to increase the pace of its consultations including taking a broader legal view point because the angst of so many losing their livelihoods or at least a bit after getting hit by this, will only rise to unmanageable proportions.
