Hazaripahad residents up in arms against country liquor shop in area

Nagpur: The excise department has allowed a country liquor shop to open in Hazaripahad, which besides being a residential area, also has six educational institutions and three religious places. Residents have approached Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and district guardian minister Nitin Raut against the liquor shop.
Residents also met municipal commissioner Tukaram Mundhe who has reportedly assured them to look into the issue.
In the past too, when there was a proposal to open the country liquor shop, a delegation of residents of Ashoka Apartment, Mandar Apartment, Hind Prerna Apartment, Prerna Duplex Society, Gajanan Prerna Apartment, Akar Nagar, Swami Colony, Prerna Nagar etc had met former district guardian minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule and urged him to scrap the proposal “as it doesn’t fulfil the norms”.
According to the residents, they have submitted an application to the district collector, commissioner of police, superintendent of state excise department and Gittikhadan police station for not permitting the liquor shop.
Though excise department officials including SP Pramod Sonone refused to speak, sources in the department said the permit was issued before the lockdown was imposed early this year.
The officials refused to divulge how permit was issued to open a country liquor shop in a densely populated residential locality. They claimed there is no rule about seeking no-objection certificate from the residents in the vicinity.
When TOI visited the locality, drunkards were openly consuming liquor even on road entire day. According to the residents, if anyone objects, they (the drunkards) misbehave and even throw bottles along the road. It has become a permanent nuisance, they said.
Residents, citing provisions while issuing the permit, said that the excise department can take action including termination of the licence if people are found consuming liquor outside the shop. Despite providing evidence, neither the excise department nor the Gittikhadan police have initiated any such action against the shop owner, they said.
TOI had reported the issue in the past too. The excise department had then withheld the permission but recently issued the permit for running the country liquor shop in a two-storey building. TOI had reported how a large number of academic institutions including a Nagpur Municipal Corporation-run school and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Kamgar Institute (less than 50 metres away) which trains a large number of students including girls, is in the vicinity of the liquor shop.
Liquor shop owner Manoj Madne claimed that he never allow buyers to consume liquor on his premises. “If they (drunkards) consume liquor on roads or at an open place, then it is the duty of enforcement agencies including police to act,” he said.