Administration shuts wine shops as crowd gathered in large numbers; DC calls meeting

Excise department of the Government of Assam issued an order yesterday allowing IMFL “OFF”/CS “OFF” shops to remain open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the permitted days. The news got widely circulated yesterday and since early morning a huge number of people started queueing up in front of the liquor stores. In the order, it was clearly stated that the stores will need to follow the COVID-19 guidelines shared by National Health Mission, Assam, and social distancing is one of the most important ones in that.

As the crowd gathered in large numbers, the administration decided to intervene and bring the shutter down. All wine shops in Cachar got shut again within a couple of hours of operation. Excise department’s Abhijit Dutta said that the deputy commissioner of Cachar, Barnali Sharma has been informed about the ongoing situation. “She has called for a meeting which will be attended by the officials from the administration and Excise department. The future course of action will be decided after the meeting,” said Dutta.

Apart from wine shops, wholesale warehouses, bottling plants, distilleries and breweries were also permitted to operate again. The excise department has asked each organisations running plant or breweries to submit their list of employees. Those organisations will have to function with minimum work-force not more than 50%.

Minister of Excise, Parimal Suklabaidya had informed yesterday that the decision to let wine shops function again was not because of revenue. He said the department has noticed a spike in the consumption of illicit liquor which can cause damage to health and to avoid that the wine shops have been granted permission again.