No liquor shop licences will be given without taking legislature into confidence ajit pawar

No liquor shop licences will be given without taking legislature into confidence ajit pawar

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Sunday clarified the government has made a rule that no licences for liquor shops will be given without taking the legislature into confidence.

His remarks came after Opposition leaders including Nationalist Congress Party (SP) member Jitendra Awhad slammed the government for issuing 328 new liquor shop licenses across the state.

“We have made a rule that if licences for liquor shops in the state are to be granted, it should not be done without taking the legislature into confidence,” said Pawar while speaking in Pune.

In other states, the number of liquor shop licences is increasing, but Maharashtra follows rules and acts in this matter systematically, he said.

“Our approach is different. If a shop is to be relocated, we give permission only as per the rules, and everything happens accordingly. There’s a committee that makes every such decision. If women at some places raise objections, we shut down the liquor shops,” said the deputy CM.

The government will take action if allegations concerning liquor shops are found to be true, he asserted.

Addressing a press conference earlier in the day, NCP (SP) leader Awhad said that Maharashtra’s liquor policy would drive the state, which is a land of saints, into alcoholism and cause distress to lakhs of families. He claimed that the BJP-led Mahayuti government was planning to issue licences for 328 new liquor shops across the state to “cope with the financial burden of schemes like Ladki Bahin Yojana (under which eligible women receive monthly aid of ₹1500).”

“The liquor-driven policy to fill an empty treasury is a betrayal of families. To pay the Ladki Bahin (beloved sister), this government will cheat brothers, husbands and fathers. The Devendra Fadnavis government will go down in history for selling alcohol licences instead of preserving public health,” he said.

“Today, licences that were cancelled 50 years ago are being sold at ₹1 crore, while the same are worth ₹15 crore. I have a list of 47 directors of firms who are making the rounds of Mantralaya (for these licences). These are the people benefiting from this corrupt system,” he alleged.

Incidentally, on July 8, Ajit Pawar, who holds the finance and state excise portfolios, informed the assembly that no new liquor licences have been granted in the state since 1972 though transfers of existing licences from one location to another are permitted following due procedure.

He also told the assembly there was no legal provision under existing rules that allowed municipal corporations to pass resolutions revoking liquor licences within their jurisdiction. Pawar was responding to a calling attention notice given by Panvel BJP MLA Prashant Thakur regarding the cancellation of liquor licences in Kharghar and declaring it an alcohol-free zone.