Liquor shops closed again in Mumbai, No decision about Pune but Collector warned……

Pune, May 6, 2020: The Maharashtra government had permitted to start non-essential shops including wine shops from May 4 during the lockdown period with certain conditions. However, the relaxation granted in Mumbai has been canceled. Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Pravin Pardeshi has ordered to cancel all the relaxation and continue only essential services.

Relaxations during lockdowns led to overcrowding outside wine shops and more vehicles on the roads. People didn’t follow discipline and physical distancing and it also led to law and order problem. So the corona is more likely to spread and the effort put in so many days while controlling Coronavirus in Mumbai can be wasted. With this in mind and to avoid potential rise in number of COVID19 positive patients, the relaxation for Mumbai has been canceled. Using the special powers given to the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner, orders have been issued that from today only essential services will continue in Mumbai as before.

After the relaxation in lockdown in Mumbai, there was a big crowd of people for shopping on the streets. Large crowds were seen, especially outside liquor shops. With this in mind and receiving reports from police and ward officers, the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner has decided to cancel the relaxation. Therefore, liquor shops and other non-essential shops in Mumbai will be closed again from today. Only groceries and medical stores will be allowed to open. The order of the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner will be implemented in Mumbai and strict action will be taken against those violating the order under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

In Pune, however no such decision has been taken yet. “For liquor shops there will be a token system and without token no liquor will be sold. This will help in reducing number of customers at a time”, said Deepak Mhaisekar, Pune Divisional Commissioner.

Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram said that certain guidelines have been issued to the liquor shops owners, like maintaining physical distancing among customers, using masks, hand sanitizers among others. If there is violation of these conditions, then license of wine shops will be cancelled till lockdown, Ram said.