The bar owners of Goa, while welcoming the decision of Government of Goa to denotify state highways and provide relief to liquor outlets, have also demanded the Government gives the same relief to the bars on Highways falling in village panchayats.
Few bar owners from Aquem-Margao have breathed a sigh of relief after the denotification. However, those in the heart of Margao and Vasco are still in limbo as the roads in Margao are State as well as National Highways.
Confusion has been prevailing over which roads have been denotified and who gets a relief out of the government’s move. The Bar Owners Association has clarified that the battle is half won. They said the bars, which are on or around state highways passing through the cities and towns will be getting relief from the said move. The Bar Owners Association has also reminded that the question of the bars falling in panchayat jurisdiction on or around National Highways and state highways still remain to be relieved from the fear of losing their business permanently.
The President of the Bar Owners Association, Michael Carasco, has welcomed the decision saying that this move has helped several bar owners save their daily bread. Michael added that while so many bars operating in town have got relief, efforts have to be made to get relief to the bars around state and National Highways in villages. “If a review petition is filed in the Supreme Court on the basis of earlier reliefs given, Goa will be completely exempted from the impact of the earlier decision,” said Michael Carasco.
Meanwhile the Assistant Secretary of the Bar Owners Association, Xavier Fernandes, said “This is the denotification of the State Highways and specifically passing through municipal areas and no villages are exempted from the same.”
Xavier also reminded the Government that they have to think over considering the approachable road criteria over the crow fly yardstick which according to him will give relief to another 500 bars in and around Goa.
Explaining the strategy for relief to Goa, Xavier said “The first relief was by changing from 500 to 220 metres for areas less populated. The second relief was by State Highway denotification, later approachable road clause, then National Highway denotification move and finally a review petition to give relief to the last remaining bars will be the steps which will absorb the impact of the order completely for state for Goa,” he said.
Margao is faced by a peculiar situation wherein the road from Grace Church right up to Powerhouse through Aquem, and from Big G to Caro corner is a State Highway. However, a National Highway passes immediately after the State Highway ends near the Caro Corner.
Explaining the advantage Goa has while filing review petition, Xavier said, “Goa has got advantage over other States since during Portuguese time Goa was the only state where liquor was available. As far as extraction and distillation of heritage liquor, Goa is the only place which provides licence to do this. These are sufficient grounds to provide relief to entire Goa.”
It is a happy sign that several bar owners on the Aquem road have now been given relief and the rest will follow. But lot remains to be done to get the liquor vends from villages out of trouble which will need immense planning.
