Srinagar: For the first time after the outbreak of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has identified 183 places, including 67 spots in the Valley for opening up liquor outlets at a massive scale.
In an official communication sent to the Financial Commissioner, Finance department, Civil Secretariat, Excise commissioner J&K Rajesh Kumar Sharma says that his department has divided the J&K UT area into 27 zones. He further writes in the letter that as per the survey conducted and in exercise of the powers under rule 28 of J&K Liquor and License rules, 1984 and section 4 (B) of the excise Act, a total list of 183 locations including 116 in Jammu and 67 in the zones of Kashmir have been identified. The list of the places is enclosed with the official letter.
“It is request that the necessary approval may kindly be granted enabling to proceed further strictly under the rules by way of any transparent method, either e-auctioning zone wise or location wise as the government deems fit as a matter of policy,” the letter reads.
According to the documents, the Excise department has identified spots/places in all four districts of south Kashmir—Pulwama, Shopian, Kulgam and Anantnag followed by Srinagar, Baramulla, Bandipora, Ganderbal and Budgam.
Baramulla with 18 spots tops the survey list compiled by the excise department, while Srinagar remains second with 8 identified places. Ganderbal and Budgam has 7 identified spots each, Shopian 6, Anantnag and Kulgam 5 each, Pulwama and Kupwara 4 each, while Bandipora has three proposed liquor outlet spots.
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