Supreme court recently put a ban on liquor within 500 metres on National and state highways
But Rajasthan government has found a Jugaad so that they need not to ban liquor shops!
Rajasthan Government master plan
The Rajasthan government has declared state highways passing through habitated areas as urban roads or district roads to follow supreme court order of not selling liquor on state highways!
A one-time notification will be brought by Public Works Department after which proposed as well as existing sections of state highways which cross inhabited regions will turn into urban roads provided that they are linked to a by-pass. By giving this notification, PWD is ensuring that the Supreme Court’s order of putting a ban on liquor in the range of 500 meters and 220 metres will not imply on these stretches.
By means of this order, the govt. wants to make state highways’ de-notification process a one-time exercise and the order will de-notify each road traversing boundaries of panchayats, tehsils, towns and the city. What’s more, all such roads will renounce the state highways’ status on the condition that a by-pass connects them.
According to the chief engineer of Public Works Department, Shiv Lahari Sharma,
“We are working on the lines of central government where they have made similar provisions for national highways. Instead of de-notifying each road, old portion of state highways by default will become part of local bodies once the highway is aligned through a by-pass.”
He further said,
“There cannot be two state highways with same number passing through same area. So once by-pass is constructed, the old section passing through populated areas will automatically come under the local body and loose its highway status.”
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However, this notification will safeguard alcohol shops in view of the fact that there won’t be any need for them to wind up shops and allow rooms as well as bars, according to the SC’s order which bans the sale of alcohol from 1st April in the range of 500 metres of national and state highways; nevertheless, this ban isn’t imposed on any other road.
On the other hand, PWD has straightly denied that this move is taken for the benefit of liquor vending. As per officials, this process is continuous and the same will continue happening in future too.
In the words of Shiv Lahari Sharma,
“Our mandate is to construct and maintain roads. It has nothing to do SC ruling on liquor shops. Notification will be issued by the end of this month.”
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