Hyderabad: Toddy is available, but not at retail outlets in Hyderabad. The TRS government’s much touted revival of toddy sale in Hyderabad and surrounding places from Dasara has hit the land block. The government, however, has decided to go ahead and open at least a few shops symbolically on Dasara.
After the ban on toddy sale in the city 10 years ago by the YSR government, “Kallu compounds”, or toddy shops, which were housed in sprawling premises in the twin cities, had vanished. In their place, multi storied buildings, star hotels and commercial establishments have come up. The government’s efforts to find new premises for toddy retail outlets is proving to be a herculean task and has put it in a fix.
Besides, owners think twice before letting out their premises for toddy shops since it invariably leads to public nuisance. Only those with their own land and houses in decongested places might start outlets. “We are going ahead with restarting toddy sale in the city from Dasara. We may open seven to eight shops initially. But there is a severe space crunch. The old toddy shop areas have vanished. We are on the hunt for new spaces to sell toddy and have janata bars,” said excise minister T. Padma Rao.
Stating that constitution of full-fledged toddy tappers’ societies would take three months, he added that initially some societies with adhoc bodies would begin commercial operations. Ten years ago on October 1, 2004,the YSR government had banned 103 toddy shops in the then municipal limits of Hyderabad and another 17 in the adjoining areas of Ranga Reddy district. In all, 43 societies had operated 103 shops before the ban. The undivided AP government had earned Rs 54 crore while Telangana’s share was Rs 10 crore.
Mr Padma Rao also said that the Excise Act did not specify the area required to house a toddy shop. “It can be sold through a shop or open spaces of 200 square yards, 400 square yards etc. But toddy shops require bigger spaces since the barrels are downloaded from lorries and stored. Besides, consumers too like to consume liquor in spacious places. But costly land and high shop rents is making it difficult for toddy tappers to get premises,” he admitted.
The government did not anticipate the space problem and did not conduct studies to ascertain whether toddy sale would be economically viable in a costly city like Hyderabad where land prices and rents were sky high.
Old toddy compounds like those in East Marredpally, Chilkalguda, Bhoiguda, Nallagutta, Kavadiguda, Uppal and other places are gone and on those places buildings have come up. Meanwhile, several women’s organisations in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have opposed revival of toddy shops in both the states.
