Bengaluru: Serving Alcohol at MG Road Pubs and Bars Banned

Bengaluru, Pecos, MG Road, Brigade Road, Supreme Court Ban on alcohol, Karnataka government, Bengaluru Mayor G Padmavati

The Karnataka Government and the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) seem to have had a bit of shut eye and not stayed in touch with the Supreme Court’s ban on bars and pubs on state and national highways. The administration finally opened their eyes and realized that nearly 200 bars and pubs on the MG Road area will have to stop the sale of alcohol within a week.

MG Road, Brigade Road, and Church Street have as many as 138 pubs and restaurants that serve alcohol.

The Supreme Court order states serving alcohol is prohibited within 500 meters of state and national highways. The outlets around MG road need to stop serving alcohol as MG road is a national highway according to government records.

The manager at one of the most famous and oldest bars at Brigade road, Srinivas Gowda said, “ All we can do is apply but the Excise Department will not issue the license as they also have to abide by the Supreme Court order. We have three outlets in Brigade Road and Church Street. Our customers don’t come here for the food alone. It’s because of the beer. We have been serving beer for the last 30 years and the Brigade Road outlet is one of our oldest ones. We have no option but to move to another area which is not a state or national highway. This will cause us a huge loss.”

Additional Excise Commissioner, Rajendra Prasad spoke to a news channel and said, “ Why is everyone saying that the Excise Department did something wrong? We cannot renew licenses unless they relocate their outlets more than 500 meters from the national highway. Since national highways have not yet been denotified, we have no other option. We have to abide by the Supreme Court order. We are just doing our job.”

President of Karnataka Wine Merchants’ Association, Honnagiri Gowda expressed his anger, “The Supreme Court order came out on March 31. It has been over two months and now the BBMP and State Government has suddenly realized that MG Road is officially listed as a national highway. This is the problem with our government. The BBMP has been maintaining the roads in the municipal limits for decades now. Their lethargy and unwillingness to work promptly are now taking a toll on us.”

Bengaluru Mayor, G. Padmavati explained the MG road stretch is maintained by the BBMP and are not considered a highway.

She added, “These roads in the heart of the city are highways only in the record books. All maintenance work and development is carried out by the BBMP. The Karnataka Government is in talks with National Highways Authority of India and we are trying to convince them to hand over the roads to BBMP. No official communication has been received from NHAI yet.”

K.J. George, Bengaluru Development Minister seems confident that they would be able to convince the center to denotify MG road.

The Pub Owners Association and Wine Merchants have clearly stated that if the government does not denotify MG road as a highway, they will take out huge protests and even file a petition with the Supreme Court.

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