Serpentine queues, bumper business as liquor shops open

05/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,BENGALURU

Serpentine queues and chaos in some places marked the opening of liquor shops in the city on Monday after 40 days. People started queuing up from early morning till evening to purchase liquor. At many places, maintaining social distance became a challenge for both the police and staff of the shops. In many shops, stocks of beer were exhausted by 3 p.m. In some other places, the police decided to close shops by 6 p.m., forcing many to return empty handed.

Ravi Prakash, a resident of R.T. Nagar, said: “After the lockdown was announced, people were selling liquor in black charging exorbitant rates. Now, MRP shops are open. I stood for more than an hour to get inside the shop.”

Some people decided to hoard lest shops are closed again. “Due to the lockdown, we could not get liquor for more than a month. The lockdown has already been extended before. So I stocked up,” Ashish, a resident of Sahakarnagar, said.

Jagadish, the owner of a liquor shop in Kogilu Cross, said: “Due to the lockdown, our employees had gone to their home town. We had to run the business with limited staff. Most of our stock was exhausted.”

Many shops put up boards stating that liquor will be sold only to those wearing masks. The Excise Department had directed the shops to allow five people inside for purchase and maintain 6-ft social distancing.

The department maintained that there was enough stock of liquor in Karnataka State Beverages Corporation Ltd. (KSBCL) depots and measures have been taken for operations of distilleries and breweries.