Bengaluru, May 4: Booze lovers ushered in the resumption of liquor sales in a spirited fashion in Karnataka onMonday thronging stores hours before shutters went up at severalplaces and made no secret of their celebratory mood.
At some places, they flocked liquor shops even before day-break and performed "special prayers" with flowers, coconuts,incense sticks, camphor and crackers in front of the stores.
Liquor outlets had been shut in the State from March 25 following the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Excise revenue loss during the period was about Rs 2,500 crore, according to government sources.
About 4,500 standalone liquor outlets (CL-2 and CL- 11licence holders), which comprise wine stores and those owned bystate-run Mysore Sales International Limited, outside containmentzones were allowed to be opened from Monday from 9 am to 7 pm withsome restrictions.
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These include customers compulsorily wearing of facemasks andmaintaining social distancing with not more than five people inside liquor shops.
Many customers were indeed well-prepared.
At many places, they came with umbrella, raincoat, newspapers and books and queued up as early as 3 am.
At a liquor shop in Salegame Road in Hassan, the tipplers lit the traditional lamp and incense sticks, performed 'aarati'with camphor and decorated the store with the garland of flowers.
With folded hands, they all performed 'special prayers'.
In Mandya, the tipplers queued up before Martaanda liquor shop before dawn.
An hour before the sales were to resume, a few people burst crackers in celebration.
Some tipplers in Belagavi were more "enterprising."
They wentto a liquor store on Sunday night itself, performed special prayersand placed their "representatives" in the form of slippers, bags and stones in the "social distancing boxes" they themselves had drawn sothat they don't have to stand in queue in the morning.
An elderly woman Dakamma was the centre of attraction in Shivamogga.
The bent body did not bend the determination of this spirited lady, claimed to be 96-year-old, who was heard saying "liquor is goodfor health."
At the taluk headquarters town of Brahmavara in the coastal Udupi district, the queue of the booze lovers was reported to be almost half-a-kilometre.
Long queues were seen at liquor stores at Mariyappana Palya and K R Puram, among others, in Bengaluru.
The store managers too were no less cautious while dealing with customers in the COVID era.
They let the customers enter after spraying sanitisers in their hands, and allowed only those who hadworn masks and maintained social distancing.
To maintain law and order, authorities had deployed policemen in good numbers at these stores and they were seen on duty ensuring that customers maintained social distancing.
Comments
Hi faizhal bhai ...artha aithu bidi ....Johnny walker beku antha indirect agi kelta ideera. ...papa en madakke Agathe ...DEC 31st sigree Johnny walker nalli abhisheka madistini padubidrili.
adsari triple talaq baratte antha tension suru agirbeku ....haha .. Careful kanree hendru case haakidre kabbaddi adida reason ge monthly maintence kodbekaguthe ...konege Dana kadiyo vehicles saha ada idbekaguthe ....
Adsari ...binder nalli burnol business jora ...surgical strikes and triple talaq matter admele bp tablets demand jaasthi agidyanthe howda...haha...neevu Johnny johhny walker antha irodu nodidre gottagutte ...
Wonder why Naren keep shifting his base very often.... now in Singapore
Why....India is not safe?
Naren....Johnny Johnny yes papa.....this is not the topic here...... forget the world...we are talking about saffron terrorism in our country..and the world already knows who created IS...your American fathers and Israel Aliyas......OK...wake up...from your pills nashaa
People like Naren & Viren can only support sadist and womanisers like Trump...
thats the mindset of sanghis
nareen kotian is abnormal let him say ..he need treatment....
Naren mama, Sangh can't be destroyed. because no one is interested to destroy it. after all sanghis are also going to apologize to the nation one day. But currently your sangh has decided to destroy the nation. We will not allow for that. Ur ultimate aim is bringing BJP to power and making india a Hindutva country. but the aim of common man of India is peace and co-existence. (Plz dont translate peace into arabic :p)
Worst than Islamic state ? Haha ...as per Islam ..non muslim women are considered as slaves ..so Isis following that theory cmon man ...
u guys scream how much ever u want ...our sangh can never be destroyed ....love u sangh parivar ......trump mama bandu Islamic state ge benki haako dina dura illa ....surgical strikes admele mini Pakistanis gala demand for burnol has increased 4 times Anthe ...
Indian version of ISIS
So what TAG will applied to thus group. Are they Desh Bakth. Is it allowed to hold such weapons. If ithis type of offence carried out by minority immediatley they will apply terrorist label. Now we have to wait and see active central govt and their chela TV media's comments.
For peace loving Indians account this group is terroriit. Worst than ISIS
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