This refers to the Chinese Whispers item “Delhi Police’s bottle of woes” (May 6). It is intriguing that notwithstanding the imposition of the whopping 70 per cent “special corona fee” on the maximum retail price of alcohol by the Delhi government, long serpentine queues were still being seen outside most liquor shops in the national capital on Tuesday. Where are we headed? As the Delhi Police is already bogged down with its disaster-management duties, the Arvind Kejriwal government should urgently review its decision to open liquor shops there.
Significantly, a national news channel also showed visuals of liquor lovers who proudly claimed they had waited for more than nine hours for a shop to open. TV 9 Bharatvarsh also reported that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had ordered closure of liquor shops after their failure to follow the requisite social-distancing norm in Mumbai. However, one really wonders if the Delhi government will emulate the BMC, more so when social distancing has truly remained conspicuous by its absence.
S Kumar Delhi
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