Kurnool: Liquor sale on highway dhabas has become a centre of earning revenue for police. Despite curbs on sale of liquor following Supreme Court order to minimise and control accidents on the highways, still the sale of liquor on dhabas in Kurnool has become a cause of concern.
The IV Town police station in Kurnool under whose limits the busy Bangalore-Hyderabad highway passes is a case in point. Just get into any of the dhabas and the chances are that one will be served with choicest of liquors. Families who venture out to go to dhabas to have food were in for surprise as college students, real estate agents, truck drivers, marketing and sales staff of several companies were seen enjoying their drink.
It appears as though was it a bar or a makeshift dhaba. Heated argument among guests over liquor consumption in dhabas is a regular phenomenon.
The IV Town circle inspector Nagaraja Rao when contacted said that there was no sale of liquor in dhabas. Referring to important bars under the fourth town jurisdiction, he said that hundreds of cases have been filed against such dhabas. The circle inspector said that as the punishment mechanism was not prohibitive enough to stop these dhabas from carrying liquor supply, the owners of the dhabas go to the court and pay the fine and get back to their job. What could we do, he questioned.
Kurnool SP Gopinath Jatti said that he would root out such establishments for carrying on the liquor supply. He said that separate parties were pressed into service to study the liquor sale on highways and stringent punishments would be imposed on the erring operators.
