Local residents protest against liquor vend

Residents of Wazir Nagar in south Delhi on Wednesday came together to voice their opposition to newly opened liquor vend in their neighbourhood.

They alleged that when they approached the MLA of the area, he didn't pay heed to their requests to close the vend and instead said that “he has the power of giving consent to six such vends”.

The residents, who were speaking at a public hearing called by Swaraj Abhiyan, a break-away organisation of the Aam Aadmi Party, remarked that while the chief minister is fighting the Punjab elections on the agenda of making it a drug-free state, he is not paying attention to a similar problem in Delhi.

“Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is fighting the Punjab elections with a promise of making it addiction free but is allowing opening of liquor shops in front of our houses,” said Manjeet, a resident.

The liquor vend was opened in the area at Kotla Mubarakpur near South Extension around a month ago.

According to the Excise rules of Delhi government, no liquor shop for consumption off the premises shall be located within a distance of 75 metres from major educational institutions which includes schools.

The Wazir Nagar area is both residential and commercial. According to residents, the government girls school in the vicinity is just 50 metres away from the vend.

“Also, the bus stand is just 10 steps away and it has become impossible to wait for the buses there. The church is within 80 yards (around 73 meters) and it is near to the main market. The whole atmosphere has been ruined by the drunkards. It is difficult to go anyway near that shop after 5 pm,” Manjeet said. 

Another resident, Jaswinder, said people line up in the evening to fetch alcohol and get drunk on the street and engage into fights and abuses.

Swaraj Abhiyan, which came into existence after Anaand Kumar, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav and Ajit Jha were expelled from AAP, said that 58 new liquor vends have been opened since the party came to power and demanded their closure. The organisation has threatened to hold public courts from Wednesday in the a­reas where people are opposing these vends.

“The AAP came to power after promising Swaraj and participatory governance. However, the government is ignoring the promises made in the draft Swaraj Bill, which talked of taking residents’ approval before opening liquor vends,” a group member said.

He also said according to an RTI, out of Rs 526 crore allocated for advertisements for one year, the government has “only spent Rs 7.6 crore on advertisements discouraging alcohol and drugs.

Moreover, there are no records on how this money was spent”.