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
It is not a big deal....in Darga you wont find any God.....LOL...
Temple or dargah both are same which leads to shirk..... both believers of temple and dargah has lack of religious knowledge, instead of reading their religious books this people are believing this fraud baba, tantrik, swami, tangal, koya etc.... may Allah give hidaya to all the human beings in this earth to know the truth
I am sure that Trupti Desai is doing such unwanted acts only to get popularity. Is she really concerned about women, she should fight agaisnt dowry, killings of woman in the name of dowry, rape, misbehave by immoral police etc etc. In the same time, Desai should know that Dargah is not a holy place for Muslims and there is no need of any Muslim to pray in the Dargah. Muslim women are given freedom to pray in their home. Instead of praying at home why are they so eager to visit Dargah or Masjid. Does they want to show their beauty? why are they interested in unnecessary activities which is being supported by Desai whereas she is not interested in actual and important things. Does Desai has no other job?
Think Brothers Think ... and PONDER, is DARGAH culture allowed in ISLAM? Y are we encouraging this system of worship... which is close to the cultures of pagan worshipers...
WORSHIP ALLAH the way Prophet Muhammad pbuh taught us and follow the Sahabas RA .. When U follow the last and final prophet of ALLAH, U will not be trapped with such humiliation. When we follow our own desire... then expect such treatment ...
Prayer of the Mushriks.. There is no Darga concept in islam.
Dear Desai,
Just for your information it is one and the same, if you pray in darga or in temple it will go nowhere. worship the creator not his creation.
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