Some people in Goa can breathe a sigh of relief. According to the State’s Attorney General, S D Lotlikar, bars and restaurants along national and state highways in Goa will not be affected by the ban imposed by the Supreme Court. The only ones affected are the vendors whose businesses will cease to exist legally come April 1 this year. The struggle doesn’t end here, for these vendors, but the lobby may certainly lose a bit of force considering they will not have the added might of the state’s restaurant associations. The AG stated that this order only talks about sale of liquor to be consumed ‘off premises’, which is where the vendors come in. The positive aspect of this order is that the various restaurants and other related establishments along the highways can continue to function.
The state will still suffer a blow. The Supreme Court passed the order banning sale of liquor within 500 metres of state and national highways after repeated intimations to state government. The initial policy, on which the order is based, was by the National Road Safety Council in 2004, when they agreed that licences for liquor shops should not be given on national highways. An advisory was issued in 2007 and since then the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been advising state government to stop issuing fresh licences and let existing ones lapse. In one way, this issue could have been nipped in the bud years ago by the government of Goa (and other state governments). It is only when fatal accidents along these highways continued unabated that the SC stepped in and put a stop to it.
While there is no actual proof that a majority of accidents along the highways occur because of drunken driving, courts issue orders based on cases filed. All these orders stem from a PIL filed in 1996 by an NGO called Arrive Safe in Chandigarh. Things took a while to escalate but the matter has reached the Supreme Court because states failed to act on previous orders and advisories, simply because of the massive revenue potential of these bars. Goa may be affected by an order based on stats in Punjab but, let’s be honest, accidents do happen here too because of drunken driving.
What needs to happen now is simple. The liquor vendors have to lobby the Supreme Court and perhaps even join other liquor associations from other states in this matter. The government of Goa can support them in this matter. Whatever the result, the state government needs to work harder to enforce safe motoring on Goa’s roads.
