india

Updated: Nov 16, 2019 10:14 IST

The Madhya Pradesh government plans to soon open air-conditioned drinking spaces next to wine shops selling branded alcohol in a bid to boost excise revenue, officials said even as the move drew flak from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which termed it as “retrograde”.

According to a state government official familiar with the development, a decision has been taken to provide the space (called Ahata in local parlance) for drinking next to Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) shops.

The government already has a provision for similar facility next to shops selling country made liquor in the state which were opened during the reign of the previous BJP government. But these ahatas are not air conditioned.

“There was concern in the department as to how to make this facility better than those ahata with country made liquor shops, hence the decision taken in regard with air-conditioning,” the official mentioned above said.

These places would also have facility for filtered water, sofa sets, snacks and security guards, he said. Though there are more than 1050 wine shops in the state, 800 of such shops will have this facility, as per the officer.

Another excise department official said this is being done to boost to the government’s revenue when it is under constraints primarily because of waiver of farm loans in the last and current financial year.

In 2018-19, the state government earned Rs 9,506 crore through excise. This financial year the target is Rs 10,701 crore.

The second official quoted above said for each air-conditioned space the liquor vends will have to pay additional two percent of the licence fee.

Madhya Pradesh has 2,544 country made liquor shops and 1,061 IMFL shops.

The previous BJP government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan had introduced the concept of ahatas for country made liquor shops to check open drinking around vends. In 2017, Chouhan during his Dil Se programme aired on All India Radio announced that the ahatas would be closed.

Then finance minister Jayant Malaiya had said there were complaints regarding nuisance caused by people who drank in ahatas. But, the announcement did not reflect in the BJP government’s excise policy for 2018-19.

The ahatas near country made liquor shops have continued to exist, but the BJP now says they are a nuisance and accused the Congress of ignoring it.

“The Congress government is hardly concerned with nuisance in public and inconvenience caused to people particularly women. It is only concerned about revenue. It is a retrograde step,” BJP leader and former chairman Food and Civil Supply Corporation, Dr Hitesh Bajpai said.

The government insists dedicated places to drink will check nuisance in public.

Minister for Excise, Brijendra Singh Rathore, said, “The Ahatas will check nuisance in public as people will have a place to sit in. This will hardly cause inconvenience to anyone.”