Dry day in capital from Mar 25-27 in wake of West Bengal Assembly Elections

Ranchi: In wake of first phase of polls in the neighbouring state of West Bengal on March 27 liquor shops will be closed in the state capital of Ranchi for 48 hours starting from the evening of March 25.

An order in this regard has been issued by Ranchi DC Chhavi Ranjan as per which all liquor shops will remain shut from 6:30 pm on March 25 to 6:30 pm March 27. Further on the day of counting on May 2  also a dry day has been declared.

As per the instructions on the dry day all retail liquor shops bar restaurants club micro brewery and all other licence holders of selling liquor will keep there shops and premises closed and no kind of liquor will be sold.

Closure of the shops for two days just before the big festival of Holi is likely to result in to a loss of nearly Rs 2.50 crore in revenue to the state government. Ranchi alone contributes 20 percent of the revenues generated across Jharkhand from sale of liquor. As per an estimate there are about 90 shops selling English liqour in capital while additional revenue is also generated from country liquor shops.

Members of the liquor traders association said that Holi is an important festival as far as sales of the liquor is concerned and in such a scenario the decision of the district administration is a disappointing one. They said that talks are being held as if the shops are closed then the traders will suffer losses and it would be difficult to achieve the target figures of January to March quarter. Further they pointed that even on occasion on Holi which falls on Monday dry day will be observed.