This story is from May 23, 2020

Delhi: 66 private liquor shops get government’s permission to resume operations

Delhi: 66 private liquor shops get government’s permission to resume operations
Photo for representative purpose only
NEW DELHI: The excise department on Friday ordered opening of 66 private liquor stores that sell foreign and Indian-made foreign liquor in the capital.
This is in addition to about 172 shops run by government agencies that were allowed to open from May 4. Another 300-odd government-run liquor stores across the city are also in process of starting operations.
An official said that 66 private stores and 300-odd government run will have to follow the odd-even rule of opening of shops in the markets.
The 172 shops that were given permission to operate earlier can open every day.
After Delhi government issued fresh guidelines on various activities permitted in phase 4 of the lockdown earlier this week, which paved way for opening of all liquor shops except those located in shopping malls, the excise department had come up with a separate standard operating procedure for stores run by private operators.
The excise department made it mandatory for the owners of all private liquor stores to conduct a monthly stock recording activity between May 19 and 21, and submit a compliance report. Only those stores that submitted the report and an undertaking that the shop did not fall in a containment zone were to be given the permission to operate.
“So far, only 66 stores complied with our order and they have been given permission,” said a senior excise department official.

Of 863 liquor shops in Delhi, 475 are run by four government corporations – Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation, Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation and Delhi Consumer’s Cooperative Wholesale Store – while 389 are owned by private players.
Of these 389, about 150 are located in shopping malls and not allowed to open at least in this phase of lockdown, which will remain in place till May 31.
Officials said that the opening of more shops will considerably reduce the pressure on a handful of stores that were allowed to operate in the city in the last phase of lockdown. Huge crowds were witnessed out the liquor shops earlier this month forcing government to start issuing e-tokens for people to book a time slot at a shop to avoid the crowd and the queue. The facility of e-tokens will remain available only at government-run stores.
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