Complaints about lack of sale due to ‘too many wine shops’
Shillong, Apr 2: The state government has temporarily put on hold issuing of licenses for opening of new wine shops and bonded warehouses, pending launch of a new mechanism to streamline the system of issuing such licenses.
“We have stopped issuing licenses temporarily. We will come up with a new mechanism. We will start issuing new licenses only after conducting a thorough study,” said minister in-charge Excise Kyrmen Shylla on Tuesday.
“Our officers are on the job. We are doing a proper study to know where we need to increase the number wine shops and where we need to stop,” he added.
Earlier, there were complaints from existing wine shop owners that they don’t have proper sale due to presence of too many wine shops.
Stating that issuing of licenses was stopped in view of the complaint, “We will study and only then we will go ahead with new licenses.”
On wine shops located near educational institutions and places of worship, the minister said the department would look into such matter.
He also clarified that licenses are issued based on NOC issued by the local headman.
“We do respect the sentiment of people… headman is a person, who knows about his locality and he is elected by the people of that village,” he said.
The minister said the headman’s consent is also necessary as in case of complaints against any wine shop owners, the government can discuss the matter with the respective headman.
Asked, Shylla maintained that the existing wine shops would carry on and relocation, if any, would be based on request made by them.
He also informed that spot visit is conducted by excise officials from time to time.
