With 950 liquor vends facing closure following the orders of the Supreme Court, the government is set to change the nomenclature of the state highways under the new maintenance policy for roads.
“As Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is in Delhi and no meeting of the Cabinet is scheduled, the latter’s approval will be taken through circulation and a notification in this regard is expected to be issued shortly,” sources in the government said.
“The file is already with the Chief Minister and a formal nod is awaited,” the sources said.Under the new policy, the names of several state highways and major district roads will be changed.Due to the relocation of liquor vends within 500 m of the national and state highways, about 50 per cent units remained unsold as bidders did not participate in the auction.
Now, the government is toying with idea to rename the state highways as the major district roads.There are 18 state highways in the state with total length of 1,466 km while the length of 60 major district roads is 2,427 km.
The sources said 17 national highways and 61 roads declared as national highways would not be affected by the new maintenance policy and liquor vends along these would have to shut down.
The government has fixed the final auction of the liquor units tomorrow and has made it clear that the unsold units would be run by the state-owned Beverages Corporation.
Besides liquor vends, a large number of liquor bars in restaurants and hotels along the national and state highways are also in troubled waters and as such stakes are high for contractors, hotels, liquor contractors and the state government.
Story : The Tribune