CHANDIGARH: The sales of beer and wine in Chandigarh shot up by 400 per cent and 260 per cent respectively during 2006-07 and the trend continued the following year too.

Changes in the Excise Policy in 2006-07 like switchover from auction system to licensing system for distribution of liquor are the prime agents of rise in consumption.

“This change was needed to bring in more variety and improve the ambience of thekas,” says a senior official of the department, insisting that the policy is a step in the right direction.

According to him, the policy was changed not to increase revenue collection but to check the dangers of the auction system and the ensuing cartelisation.

The official jubilantly interpreted the presence of 215 liquor-vending shops in the city thus: “This shows that people have started to move from high [alcohol] content, low quality drinks to low [alcohol] content, high quality drinks.”

The official denied that there was any connection between the increase in alcohol consumption and the rise in alcohol-related domestic violence in the city. However, Sarita Devi, a 22-year-old migrant who has been living in the city for a long time with her husband and three children, does not agree. “I work all day as a maid and my husband pulls a rickshaw. He spends all the money we earn on alcohol and comes home drunk every night. What good are these thekas doing to anybody?”

Chandigarh has the location advantage of being a gateway to Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and to ensure that the drivers on the national highways are not tipsy, the policy clearly states that, “No liquor vend shall be allowed to be opened at a distance of less than 150 meters of the National Highway.”

In comparison, the minimum distance between an educational institute and a liquor shop as stipulated by the policy is only 50 metres.