Excise Department Serves Notices to 114 Liquor shops

Excise Department Serves Notices to 114 Liquor shops

Mangaluru: The excise department has served notices to 114 wine shops in the district to control and bring down the rate of accidents on the state and national highways.

Most of the drivers go to the wine shops along the highways, consume liquor and drive which leads to accidents. The Supreme court in December had ordered to shut down all the liquor shops within a 500-metre distance from the highways in the district by April 1. Following the orders of the Supreme court, the Excise department has issued notices to 114 wine shop owners and extended the deadline to June.

In Dakshina Kannada district at Suratkal, Baikampady, Kuloor, Nanthur, Pumpwell, Thokkottu and Talapady there are liquor shops on the National Highways which should be closed as per the order of Supreme court.

“In the DK district there are 319 licensed Liquor shops on the side of National and state highways, already notices have been served to 114 liquor shops in March. We will vacate all the liquor shops which are within 220-metre distance from highways and places with less than 20,000 population and within 500-meters distance on highways in the city”, said the Inspector of Excise department Seema Maria.

“We have extended the time to vacate the Liquor shops until June since June is the time when the licence for liquor shops expires. We have already served notices to the owners of such liquor outlets. If they fail to vacate by June we will take action against them”, said the deputy commissioner for Excise department Kurshida Begum.