New Normal-Ban on Liquor Shops on 500 Meters of National and State Highways & Closure of Illegal Abattoirs-sends tremors across India

It is a tale of two news makers, sitting exactly 715 KMs away from each other.

If one is saffron clothes clad Yogi in the erstwhile city of Nawabs, the other is wheel chair strapped whistle blower in the architectural marvel City of Chandigarh planned by French architect Le Corbusier.

Both of them are being pilloried by different sets of people. One has allegedly robbed many off the luxury of guzzling liquor on the sideways of national and state highways, and other clamped ban on abundant meat supplies from illegal abattoirs. Neither of the two nurse any qualms for their actions and justify what they described as well intended initiatives.

Come what may be the consequences. The New normal is latest narrative of the twin developments which have stirred hornet’s nests across the nation, acclaimed globally for diverse life styles and culture.(Harman Sidhu ,Road safety activist) 

The famous two are :Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath whose crack down on illegal slaughter houses, virtually kicked off similar actions by various state governments, And the other is Harman Sidhu whose writ petition for safety of national highways in the Supreme Court led to closure of liquor shops on 500 Meters on both sides of the National highways and State highways.

Sidhu, According to reports, had suffered spinal injury in a car accident in 1996 when he along with friends was returning to Chandigarh from Renuka,Himachal Pradesh ,but their vehicle skidded and rolled down the hill.

While others managed to escape, he got trapped in the car and suffered a spinal injury.  It had left him the wheel chair bound at the age of 26 and since then he turned into activist for the road safety.

Although his car accident had nothing do with drunken driving as all of them were sober on the ill-fated day, he batted against drunken driving. 

Now, he is the star on TV channels, media and  social media.He feels the biggest killer on the highways are tipsy drivers.He strongly opposes the contention that those who want to gulp a few pegs can motor down to liquor shops even beyond 500 meters on long drives and says such restrictions are deterrent and many won’t take trouble of taking detour to purchase liquor.   

Of late, debates are swirling over deaths due to drunken driving. According to the latest data compiled by the National crime Records Bureau (NCRB), drunk driving accounts for just 1.5 per cent of all road accidents. The bureau says accident due to drunk driving have the highest fatality rates among all accidents. Some government agency differs these figures and say toll by the drunken driving is many times higher than reported.

The NCRB says 43 per cent of accidents are due to speeding – the biggest factor while 31 per cent are due to reckless driving-the second biggest killer.

The Supreme court on March 31, this year reiterated its December 15, 2016 order to shut down , By April 1,,establishments selling and serving liquor within 500 meters of national and state highways,  but the apex court relaxed the distance to 220 miters for cities, towns and municipal areas with a population of 20,000 or less.

The Sidhus’s name is gaining currency as the ban has cast larger ramifications for the hospitality industry and many affected parties say that the move would lead to complications in more ways than one.  Some say lakhs will lose job and tourism industry will suffer a major blow,but more than that to handle   SC’s liquor ban many states like Punjab,Rajasathan, Maharashtra , Chandigarh , Goa, West Bengal and a few others are weighing legal options.

A few state governments are De-notifying state highways to make them urban and local roads .

Other cascading impact, which triggered violence and vandalism in some states, was that locals led by women groups are vociferously opposing shifting of liquor shops to localities inside cities and borders. The relocation drive is being vehemently opposed. The Anti- Booz stir has intensified in Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand and some other places.

Violence  was reported in 24 district of Uttar Pradesh and fresh attack reports poured from places like state capital Lucknow’s heart Hazaratganj.In Shahjahanpur  and Moradabad, mobs resorted to arson while ransacking  liquor shops.

Protests were reported from Pithoragarh,Champawat and Bageshwar in Kumaon hills .

Experts say once state governments denotify highways, maintenance of those roads used by heavy vehicular traffic ,need more funds for maintenance and any hotchpotch and corruption will play more havoc with lives of people.

Amid these developments,Yogi Aditya Nath has made it clear that his government’s crackdown on illegal abattoirs has no malice intention but to stop illegal trading of meat. He says the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2015 and Supreme court in 2017 had given many adverse observations on illegal butcher houses and he can not illegal things legal. He was quoted in RSS weekly Organiser.

Soon after UP Chief Minister took Charge of the Country’s biggest state, he had ordered crackdown on illegal slaughter houses. In a latest development, A Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has observed that food, food habits and vending of food are linked to the right life and must not be curbed in the state. The court was hearing a writ petition of meat shop owner.

Many states are also resorting to similar actions. Cow slaughtering opponents have reportedly taken law into their hands to thwart killing of cows.

A man died  recently in Alwar district of Rajasthan after 15 people were thrashed by cow vigilantes.They were assaulted for transporting cows from Jaipur to Haryana.Allegations and counter allegations were levelled by victims and accused over legal permits for transportation of the cattle.

Echoes of such bans and “Gau Raksha”(Cow Protection) were heard in the Parliament yesterday during discussions the foot Wear Design and Development Institute ( FDDI) Bill in the Lok Sabha. Commerce and Industry Minster Nirmala Sitharaman said Yogi Aditya Nath was doing what was very much the spirit of India’s Freedom struggle.

  ( Neeraj Bajpai ,Writer is senior journalist in New Delhi)