Tipplers lose Appetite as BevQ hits a snag

Thiruvananthapuram: Excise minister T P Ramakrishnan on Wednesday announced that the sale of liquor would resume in the state on Thursday with mobile application Bev Q managing the virtual queue. However, till late night on Wednesday, the application was not available on Google playstore.
The minister said consumers could book their slots for purchase of liquor through the mobile application. Sources said there were a few more technical steps to be completed and this delayed uploading the application. Queries to Bevco and excise officials remained unanswered.
Earlier, the minister said liquor as well as beer and wine would be sold as take-home parcels at the maximum retail price printed on the bottle through 301 outlets of Bevco and Consumerfed, special counters set up in 577 bar hotels and 291 beer and wine parlours across the state.
Ramakrishnan said the government had examined various possibilities of resuming the sale after the Centre relaxed the lockdown norms. “We decided not to allow online sale and home delivery but decided that liquor can be sold (from outlets) after taking booking online,” he said.
To reduce the crowd in front of sales outlets, only five individuals will be allowed to be in the queue at a time and they will have to adhere to all safety regulations put out by the health department in the wake of pandemic. Also, once a consumer books a slot, he/she will be allowed to make the next booking only after four days. The bookings will be accepted only through the mobile application, from 6am to 10pm.
Ramakrishnan said the company for creation of the mobile application was selected through a fair process. Fair Code Technologies was chosen after considering the technical and financial bids. The company had quoted the lowest rate of Rs 2,84,203, he said.
Rubbishing allegations of 50-paise commission per consumer to the company, he said the Consumerfed and bar hotels should remit 50 paise to the beverages corporation. The company will have to pay 15 paise as charges for SMS bookings, which will be reimbursed by Bevco later. The minister said the virtual queue system is only a temporary arrangement.
On charges that the contract for the mobile application was handed over to a company whose promoters are Left supporters, he said: “My party has not asked me to do anything in that regard, and my duty is to rule on the basis of the oath I have taken. And while administering, all the people are the same. The opposition had raised several allegations but none of them is factual," he said.
However, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala reiterated the charges and demanded a probe to bring out the corruption in the deal.