Bangalore: Bar Owners On Silent March

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After 741 liquor vends in Bangalore, the shutters were down following the Supreme Court’s highway liquor ban. The members of the Excise Department said that the issue would be solved within a week.
On Monday, around 500 bar owners and employees carried out a silent march from Kantirava Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station to Freedom Park because of nonintervention by the government.
The protesting owners and the employees demanded Karnataka government to amend the Excise Act to allow pubs and bars to function 500 m from highways.
The march was organized by the Federation of Wine Merchants’ Association (FWMA) on Monday afternoon. The ban on the sale of liquor with 500 m of the highways has shut down several longtime watering holes in MG Road, Brigade Road, Church Street and Indiranagar. The owners have been incurring heavy loss because of the ban.
On July 4, after the Supreme Court order on the ban, the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh governments amended the existing excise rules. The Karnataka government must do the same and what are they waiting for? the association members questioned.
According to Guruswamy, the chairman of the FWMA said, “I feel I have lost something close to my heart. The pain caused by the ban is unbearable. Our only appeal to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is to grant us permission to carry on our business like we were doing before. This is not a loss cause for one outlet but thousands of liquor vends across the state.”
M. Meharwade, the treasurer of FWMA said that the protest was staged to save the livelihood of 6,000 people associated with the liquor industry. “Many bar owners have sent their employees home and they too are waiting for some action. It breaks my heart to see these people suffer,” he said.
“We have been appealing to the government to make amendments for the past three months. Our industry generates revenues of around Rs. 18,000 crores. We have contributed thousands of crores to the government in taxes. We are proud to be wine merchants. This ban is causing losses of around Rs. 15 crores a day,” Lokesh of Bangalore District Division said.
After a silent march, the representatives of the association demanded Siddaramaiah and 25 MLAs intervention regarding this issue. Siddaramaiah has assured them that the government will take a call on the issue based on the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision on Tuesday.

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