To avoid pro-liquor image, Centre wary of denotifying highways

Liquor shops in Bengaluru city and other parts of Karnataka, which are close to highways, may not reopen in the near future.

A source said the Centre is not keen on denotifying the roads, with Assembly elections in the state being less than a year away. A senior official in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, seeking anonymity, told DH that the Centre did not want to send out a message that it had succumbed to pressure from the liquor lobby. “The ministry fears that denotification of highways could be perceived as a favour to the liquor lobby and could be used by NGOs and political rivals during the elections,” the officials said.

“Our minister (Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari) has been aggressively campaigning for closure of bars and liquor shops close to the highways to curb road accidents. The ministry is not keen on denotifying highways as district roads or municipal roads to circumvent the apex court order,” the official said, adding that several officials from the Karnataka government had been meeting the ministry officials for the past one month to press their demand.

The ministry appears to be following the ‘wait and watch’ policy as none of the affected states, barring Karnataka, is pressuring it to denotify highways. Karnataka could promulgate an ordinance to denotify highways.

“We want to wait and if there is consensus among all the affected states, then the Centre might frame a policy,” he said.

Karnataka has written to the ministry seeking denotification of 858-km stretch of the total 6,578 km of national highways as district or city municipal council roads. The government said it will provide relief to 5,960 liquor licence holders out of 10,149 licencees, including several shops in Bengaluru city. The Supreme Court had ordered closure of all bars, liquor shops, hotels selling liquor and restaurants up to 500 metres on either side of national and state highways. The state can denotify state highways as district roads to avoid closure of liquor shops, but the road transport ministry has to denotify the national highways.

DH News Service