JOIN USBuying booze in Delhi is quite easy nowadays. Be it in a mall, a shopping complex or a market area, one can easily procure liquor to wet parched throats. But the worry is something else – finding a place to sit and drink in.
As clubs and bars levy a high service rate, youngsters have found another place to enjoy their booze in – inside their cars! Car-o-bar, a popular but dangerous trend among drink lovers, is growing fast as it is easy on their pockets too. Though the spirits of the youngsters might be dampened as the challan for this offence has been raised to Rs 5000 from Rs 500 for drinking in public places, including in a car or a train.
Youngsters feel bogged down by the move, reasoning that ‘car-o-bar’ is essential for them nowadays. Chirag Sachdeva, a young businessman who often enjoys his drinks in his car, says, “Car-o-bar is essential at weddings and other late-night celebrations. At that time we cannot go to a pub for booze. This is common sense. Everytime we cannot go to a club for alcohol and moreover car-o-bar is really easy on our pockets. It is easier to buy bottles and have them in cars anywhere you want rather than going miles for a glass of alcohol.”
Another youth Puneet Taneja, a student says, “We cannot afford to go to a pub everytime as we don’t have much money to splurge in pubs, nor we can drink at home. My friends and I enjoy drinking in cars and like to go for long drives too. The government should at least provide us with some alternate places to drink.”
According to alcohol enthusiasts, drinking in the open saves a lot of expenditure as compared to going in a bar. Now that the drinking habit has increased among the youth, one cannot pay Rs 5,000-10,000 on each outing. They are left with only one
option – car-o-bar, which is cheap and fun too!
As per the data given by the Delhi Traffic Police till July 28 this year, 15, 350 people have been challaned for drunk driving, 13, 150 for dangerous driving after consuming alcohol, 6, 440 vehicles have been seized and 2, 546 have been given imprisonment. This shows the increasing rate of alcohol consumption in the City.
On the other hand, Sindhu Pillai, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), North clears that her area is a ‘car-o-bar free area’. “North is not that much affected. We don’t find too many having alcohol inside their cars.” The offenders are booked under Section 40(a) of the Delhi Excise Act and can also be sent to jail for a month.
What is left for alcohol lovers now? If not pubs and cars, then where?