The Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has put a freeze on issuance of new liquor licences in a bid to bring down consumption and appease conservatives.
The Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has put a freeze on issuance of new liquor licences in a bid to bring down consumption and appease conservatives.
“I have not issued a single liquor licence in my tenure and I do not intend to issue one in future,” J&K finance and planning minister Abdul Raheem Rather said.
The government, however, is not interested in making J&K a dry state.
“If we implement prohibition, people will smuggle liquor from Punjab, as the experience in other states suggests,” Rather said.
Liquor sale and consumption have shown an upward trend in J&K in the past two years, sending alarm bells ringing among activists. Official figures suggest during 2008-09 the consumption of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) in Jammu (north and south city) was 38.75 lakh bottles and that of country liquor and beer was 73.93 lakh bottles and 40.12 lakh bottles.
Around 6.22 lakh bottles of IMFL, 0.05 lakh of country liquor and 5.22 lakh of beer were consumed in conservative Kashmir during 2008-09 despite a ban imposed by militants in 1990.
Liquor vends opened in Kashmir after 1996 when the National Conference government was formed post a violent phase of six years. ‘Allah Tigers’, an ultra outfit, had issued a blanket ban on sale and consumption of liquor in 1989 when militancy began. It enforced the ban by ransacking and looting liquor shops.
Official figures reveal there are 226 liquor vends/wine shops owned by private parties in the state. Of these, 135 are in Jammu city, 21 in Udhampur district and 40 in Kathua. The Muslim majority Srinagar and Baramulla districts and Buddhist dominated Leh have four, one and two vends. No new liquor licences have been issued for the past two years.
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