With all 3,000 liquor licences restored, Goa is set for a high this season

31 months after the Supreme Court banned the sale of liquor within 500 metres of national and state highways, every single cancelled liquor licence has been restored by the Goa government.

Renewal of some 500 licences was made possible after the state government declared all villages along highways as ‘sufficiently developed’ and ‘urbanised areas’ fulfilling the requirement for such exemption laid out by the Supreme Court.

“The Government is of the opinion that the entire state of Goa has sufficiently developed over the years… The pace of urbanization in the last 25 years has been phenomenal across Goa. Even areas that are otherwise village councils (Panchayats) have acquired more of urban tendencies…,” said the order issued on July 3 by Goa Finance Secretary Daulat Hawaldar allowing re-opening of the liquor vends along highways.

State government’s decision left several women activists unhappy. Sabina Martins, the convener of Bailancho Saad, an association fighting for women’s rights suggested the government had not done enough to respect the spirit of Supreme Court’s order.

“Why is the government addressing the issues of the bar owners and ignoring the social impact on the people and the whole purpose of Supreme Court’s order,” she said.

Supreme Court in a December 2016 judgement had directed all states and union territories to cease and desist from granting licences for the sale of liquor along national and state highways “to obviate dangers to the lives and safety of persons using the highways, resulting from the menace of drunken driving.”

₹450 crore out of Goa’s total tax collections of ₹7500 crore come from excise department alone. The judgement predictably sent shock waves through the famed tourist destination known for cheap liquor and resulted in around 3,000 of 11,000 liquor vendors losing licences. Some areas like the port town of Vasco da Gama had to be declared completely dry.

However, in July 2017, the Supreme Court modified its earlier order to leave out liquor vends falling within municipal areas, benefiting 2,500 of the 3,000 liquor licence holders.

Another Supreme Court modification in February 2018 left the fates of the remaining 500 licence holders in the hands of the state government which had to determine if an area was sufficiently developed to be considered for the purposes of granting a liquor licence.