Karwar: Around 80 percent of liquor vends in Uttara Kannada district will have to shut shop in July if the Supreme Court’s historical judgment on liquor ban near national and state highways is implemented. According to the Excise Department, it will be a great loss to the state’s exchequer.

The Supreme court had ordered any liquor shop within 500 meters from national and state highways to close and it further relaxed the order saying that bars can be run till its license gets expired and also given exception from 500 to 220 meters in small towns of less than 20,000 population.

As the Excise Department renews liquor license after June 30, the bar owners in the state to heave a sigh of relief until July. There are about 156 liquor shops in cities, towns and villages in the district.

Majority of the liquor shops are located along the national or state highways and out of 156, nearly 125 liquor shops have to be shut by July. This has the bar owners and employees worried.

“Karwar is surrounded by hills on two sides, sea on one side and Kali river on another side”, said Navneet Neelavar, owner of Amrut bar and restaurant in the city.

During the budget last month, the government stated that it got 18,500 crores from liquor sale. If liquor shops are closed, it will badly affect the earning of the government, sources said.

Not many liquor smuggling cases

Nearly 70 per cent of the liquor shops in the neighbouring state Goa have been closed as they were within 500 meters from the national and state highways. The excise and policemen said for the last few days, there were not many liquor smuggling cases. Goa is badly affected by the SC order on liquor. These changes in Goa gave a relief to the check post employees on the Goa-Karnataka border.

Four National Highways in dist

Four national highways and 10 state highways are passing through 11 taluks of the district. Most of the liquor shops are located on the highways. After July, most of these shops will be closed or shifted.