Several liquor shops and bars in Delhi remained shut on Monday even as the Delhi government allowed them a month-long extension to clear stocks and to make the transition from private shops to government ones smoother.
While the decision to give the extension to licenses was passed in the Delhi Cabinet on Sunday night, and by the L-G’s office on Monday afternoon, the notification was issued only in the evening. This meant that shop owners as well as restaurants and bars had no clarity on whether they could continue serving and selling alcohol.
While shops had cleared most of their stock over the weekend, confusion about their operations remained since their licenses had expired on Sunday. In a handful of shops that were open, shelves remained mostly bare.
“I went to two liquor shops near my house in the afternoon. While one was shut, the other had half of the shutter down and its shelves were mostly bare. In any case, over the past few days only one or two brands of liquor were available. It is a complete mess,” said Raghav Singh (34), a resident of Jangpura Extension. Liquor vends in areas such as Sarita Vihar, Connaught Place and Mayur Vihar remained shut.
At Connaught Place, restaurants that also serve liquor posted signs outside establishments, which either read ‘Dry Day’ or that the bar was closed.
Two separate stores of a liquor shop chain in Connaught Place were closed Monday evening. While the security guard outside one of the stores said the shop was closed to customers all day, staff at the other store refused to speak. Another liquor store in East of Kailash also had its shutters down.
At one of the restaurants, a staffer said they were waiting for information from the government on when they can start serving liquor again. “It’s closed today. We don’t know till when it will remain closed,” he said. At another restaurant, an employee said, “Today the bar is closed. We have not received any directions about serving liquor yet. Maybe we will know more a little later in the evening. But as of now, stock is available with us.”
At a mall in Mayur Vihar, which has three liquor shops, all were shut.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said Saturday that all private shops in the city would be shut and government liquor vends would be brought back. The new policy, which came into force in November last year, had marked the exit of the government from the sale of liquor. While this policy was extended at the end of March, the extension came to an end on July 31, Sunday.
This also applies to restaurants, clubs and bars, since their licenses also expired alongside retail liquor vends selling IMFL.
Implementation challenges because of which licenses had started to exit the market, followed by allegations of corruption, have prompted the Delhi government to bring back the old policy for a period of at least six months.
For now, all private vends in the city will shut after August 31 and government vends will reopen starting September 1.