Updated: Apr 11, 2017, 05:48 PM IST

WATCH This video claims liquor ban wont end drunk driving deaths this is what will!

The Supreme Court judgement banning liquor within 500 metres of highways was intended to curb drunken driving.

The Supreme Court judgement banning liquor within 500 metres of highways was intended to curb drunken driving.

But the closure of thousands of bars and liquor outlets as a result of this judgement had an unintended consequence. Lakhs of people were left jobless and it had an adverse effect on the businesses contributing thousands of crores of rupees to the GDP and a valuable source of excise revenue for state governments.

In the judgement, the Supreme Court rejected the contention that it was indulging in policy making by citing the advisories sent frequently by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to state governments to not issue fresh licences or renew old licences to liquor vends along highways. The fact that these central advisories did not create any perceptible change in the state government attitude to such liquor vends, indicates that the latter would have weighed the pros and cons of the matter.

In contrast to the wisdom of the Centre which stopped at issuing advisories, the judiciary decided that the advisory needed to become compulsory.

Since 2008 to 2015 there have been 2 deaths due to drunk driving in Goa (statistics by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways), whereas in dry state Gujarat's biggest city Ahmedabad 108 cases of drunk driving were reported from November 1, 2015 to December 28, 2016 as per statistics of the Ahmedabad City Police.

Hotel and Restaurant Association Western India posted this video on their Facebook page, trying to raise awareness against the ban, saying banning alcohol isn't the solution, enforcing stricter drunk driving laws is.

Read DNA's take on the ban here.