Anti-drunk drive gives bars withdrawal symptoms

NAGPUR: As the fiscal year comes to a close, tipplers in Orange City have a reason to be sad. Many permit rooms and bars may have to shut shop late on Wednesday evening, because they do not have enough money to renew their licenses with the excise department! Raju Sindhi (name changed on request) is one of the bar owners adversely affected by the city police’s drive against driving under the influence of liquor.
“The number of patrons has gone down sharply, by as much as 30 to 40%! A good number of them were regular customers,” he laments. Asked if the net sales of alcohol have been affected, he replies, “Actually, it has been a windfall for wine shops! Whenever someone is caught by the cops after drinking at a permit house, mostly he prefers to switch to buying alcohol from the wine shops and consuming it at home.
Of course, the family may bring some pressure on them, but habitual drinkers will drink nonetheless, whether at a bar or at home. These are the customers we are losing out on.” Pandurang Hiwarkar (name changed on request) added that there are other ways too in which bar owners are losing out.
“We are required to pay Rs 4.4 lakh approximately to renew the bar license. We earn our profits from the sales of alcohol, but a huge part of it also comes from the food sales. With fewer patrons, even food sales have gone down drastically. Some bars in Sakkardara have even resorted to selling alcohol at wine shop rates, to try and attract customers in the hope that they will spend on food,” informed the bar owner.
If the shutters do come down on these establishments, many families may be left without regular incomes. “Each bar has around 15 to 20 staff members, including cooks, waiters, bar tenders, parking attendants etc. With several bars closing down, all these people will be laid off. Their families too will suffer if they are the sole bread earners,” said Dhammadeep Meshram, another bar owner. “It seems to me that many bars will suffer this fate. I speak from personal experience. There was a time when I had to wait outside the excise department office for an entire day before getting my bar license renewed. This time, that job was done in two hours flat,” he said. However, the situation may not turn out to be all that bleak. Speaking to TOI on Wednesday, superintendent of the excise department Yatin Sawant said that this is a regular phenomenon, and not as many bars will actually close as is being feared. “We will give them the option to pay the license fees in instalments,” he said.