Temple Town turns into Guzzlers paradise in lockdown-3; Consumes 1.95 lakh bottles
Social distancing protocol becomes meaningless; liquor stock ends in few hours; Unruly scenes witnessed at many places
Varanasi: It was like an outburst of the crowds of liquor addicts at wine shops in the city on Monday when 42-day restriction on the sale of liquor during lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak was relaxed.
It seemed that the guzzlers went on a sleepless night on Sunday, when the new guideline came with certain relaxations during the lockdown. As per the new guideline, the liquor shops are allowed to sale from 10 am to 7 pm. Long queues of people could be seen at the wine shops well before the opening time.
According to Excise department records, 88,000 guzzlers consumed liquor worth of Rs. 4.74 crore on the very first day of the opening of shops on Monday. A total of 55,000 consumers purchased foreign liquor, while 21,000 preferred beer cans and 12,000 persons purchased country liquor.
The stock of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) ended in few hours, though comparative low sale was witnessed at the country liquor outlets and beer shops. Unruly scenes prevailed at many IMFL shops due to huge gathering of purchasers. The stock of lower and medium price range liquor ended by the afternoon.
The stock of around 1.95 lakh bottles of IMFL was sold well before the closing time of the shops. However, poor sale was witnessed at the country liquor and beer shops, which had stocks of 1.66 lakh liters and 3.40 lakh cans respectively.
