KOCHI: Hit by the
Supreme Court order
to remove all liquor outlets within 500m limits of
national and state highways
, the
toddy shop owners
in the state are now demanding the government to amend the state
Abkari Act
that lists toddy as liquor.
In a meeting convened on Sunday here, the
toddy shop owners
have decided to raise the demand with the minister in charge of the excise department G Sudhakaran. There are 5,200 toddy shops in the state. Soon after the
SC order
, 1,300 toddy shops near the highways shut down after they received a notice from the excise department. “If the state government fails to take a favourable decision then we will launch a protest by closing all the toddy shops,” said K Rejikumar, advisor, toddy shop licensees association.
Though Section 3 (10) of the Abkari Act says, “liquor includes wine, arrack, spirit, toddy, beer and all liquids containing alcohol”, the state government had filed an interlocutory application in SC praying that the court modify the judgment passed on December 15, “to exempt toddy, beer and wine from the definition of liquor and thereby exempt toddy, beer and wine from the purview of the judgment”. But it didn’t help.
The toddy shop owners found support in former MP Sebastian Paul who demanded that the state government to denotify the state highways into district roads to save the toddy shops functioning near highways. “Some states have already denotified their state highways to tide over the loss being incurred by closing the liquor outlets functioning near highways. Kerala also can emulate the same.In an earlier order, the SC itself gave an exception to toddy shops allowing to function on the first day of every month of English calendar, barring the other liquor outlets.”
Meanwhile, in another meeting, toddy tappers have decided to take out a protest march to the high court on April 5.
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