Letter to BS: Will Delhi follow Mumbai in shutting liquor shops?

This refers to the Chinese Whispers item “Delhi Police’s bottle of woes” (May 6). It is intriguing that notwithstanding the imposition of the who­pping 70 per cent “special corona fee” on the maximum retail price of alcohol by the Delhi government, long serpentine queues were still being seen outside most liquor shops in the national capital on Tuesday. Where are we headed? As the Delhi Police is already bogged down with its disaster-management duties, the Arvind Kejriwal government should ur­gently review its decision to open liquor shops there. 

Significantly, a national news cha­nnel also showed visuals of liquor lovers who proudly claimed they had waited for more than nine hours for a shop to open. TV 9 Bharatvarsh also reported that the Bri­han­mu­mbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had ordered closure of liquor shops after their failure to follow the requisite social-distancing norm in Mu­mbai. However, one really wonders if the Delhi government will emulate the BMC, more so when social distancing has truly remained conspicuous by its absence.

S Kumar  Delhi

Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to: 

The Editor, Business Standard

Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg 

New Delhi 110 002 

Fax: (011) 23720201  ·  E-mail: letters@bsmail.in

All letters must have a postal address and telephone number