Jammu: Senior Congress leader and former minister G M Saroori on Saturday warned of protests by people over the opening of any new liquor shop in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.
He also appealed to Jammu Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma Kishtwar Deputy Commissioner Rajinder Singh Tara not to allow opening of new liquor shops in the district.
“People, irrespective of their religious identity, have resentment against the liquor sale in Kishtwar… If the liquor shop is allowed to open in Kishtwar, people will come on the roads in protest,” Saroori, senior vice-president of Congress and former legislator, said in a statement here.
The Congress leader said the Excise and Taxation Department has issued a notice seeking commercial place in Kishtwar for modular departmental liquor stores.
Demanding immediate withdrawal of the notice, he said “People from all the faiths are against liquor sale in Kishtwar”.
“The Divisional Commissioner, Jammu and Deputy Commissioner, Kishtwar, appealed for personal intervention so that the no fresh liquor shop is opened,” Saroori said, adding “We must work for the welfare of the society. Opening another liquor shop will add to the worries of the people.”
The Congress leader recalled that during 2015-16, when he was a legislator in the last legislative assembly in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, he had moved a bill seeking complete ban on sale and purchase of liquor like it is in Bihar.
