Chaos at newly opened liquor stores leads to cop deployment

█ BOOZERS TURN LOSERS

Locked up at home with not a drop of their favourite booze for over a month, liquor lovers of Pune went berserk on Monday, after the state government allowed the sale of tipple in lockdown 3.0. While wine shops opened up after 2 pm, when official orders came in, customers thronged these stores across areas since morning anticipating the rush, throwing physical distancing norms out of window. In most places, police deployment was required to control the crowd.

Unlike the first two phases of the lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), hundreds hit the streets in various parts of the city on Monday morning — most in search of liquor.




On Sunday, the state government announced — among many fresh norms — that liquor stores would operate from Monday onwards, seemingly capturing the imagination of too many people.



Eager buyers who stepped out in the morning were disappointed, as the shops stayed shuttered for several hours — but this did not deter them from standing in snaking queues of several kilometres.

For instance, over 100 people stood in queue outside a wine shop in Hingane of Sinhagad Road since morning. One of these persons, Vinayak Nevase, shared, “I first got in line at 9 am. As the shop did not open, I even went home and had lunch. But now I am back, hoping that since orders have been given, the store will open soon.” Customers also complained of moral policing, alleging that shops were not opening because of local conservative political outfit workers. A youngster in line at Hingane shared, “Local karyakartas, appointed as volunteers by police, didn’t allow this shop to open up, and are also not letting us stand here. If the government has allowed it, who are they to do this moral policing?”

On Fergusson College (FC) Road, too, a queue starting at a well-known liquor store near Goodluck Chowk extended till Jangli Maharaj (JM) Road bus stop. Even though the shopkeeper stayed closed, people sat at the same spot, and started writing down orders to collect the bottles. Eventually cops had to step in.

When official orders came to the shops at 2 pm, they opened up, leading to even more crowding. While shopkeepers beseeched people to maintain a distance, few were in the mood to do so.

Narrated AS Bhaleraon, a wine shop owner from Kothrud, “We saw the crowd build from 8 am. As we did not have written permission at the time, we stayed closed. We kept telling people to go home, but they simply refused. When we did open up, the existing crowd also swelled very rapidly.”



Some shopkeepers drew spaced-out chalk circles in advance outside their stores, asking people to maintain social distance; at some places in Aundh, shopkeepers erected bamboo barricades for queues.

By late afternoon, when the hordes kept growing, police stepped in and simply shut many wine shops.

The state of affairs also disappointed the constabulary, said several police officers. Cops said that the stringency of the lockdown, implemented for so many weeks, seems to have failed in just a day.

Now, police have declared that if physical distancing rules are not followed outside liquor stores, strict action will be taken. Further, they are also mulling the implementation of a token system for customers to purchase booze from such stores, as has already been done at several grocery shops around town.




Affirming their chagrin, Pune commissioner of police (CP) K Venkatesham told Mirror, “It was quite dismaying to see the long queues and crowds in front of liquor shops. Pune police have handled the lockdown well, but citizens should understand that such crowding is now violating rules of social distance and lockdown. We are planning a token system for buying and selling of liquor to prevent this.”

Joint CP Ravindra Shisve echoed, “Monday’s trajectory was quite tragic. The people of Pune need to understand that the lockdown is not over. Our city remains in the red zone as a whole. Rules for shops are being relaxed for public convenience — this reaction is not proper. Do not come out in such large numbers and remain physically distant. Police will not tolerate violations and will act strictly against offenders.”



For now, wine shops have been asked by police to ensure that social distancing is followed, customers are sanitised before entry, and a token system is adopted, within fixed timings.

On the flip side, while many citizens chose to stand in line for hours on Monday, others changed their plans after seeing the mob. Subhash Chowdhary, one such buyer from Aundh, admitted, “For weeks now, I have observed all lockdown rules to keep my family and myself safe from COVID-19. Now, just to have a drink, I refuse to put my loved ones in danger. I will wait for a week before venturing to a wine shop again. One hopes the crowding will subside and things will get safer.”