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Stay on new breweries

Special Correspondent

Directive follows plea that liquor units are posing a threat to water resources

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court has issued an interim stay on issuing of fresh licences for setting up breweries and distilleries in the State.

The Court directive follows a public interest petition from Tarun Bharat Sangh, a non-government organisation working on aspects related to water conservation, seeking ban on liquor manufacturing units coming up in the district of Alwar and Jaipur, which it said, are posing serious threat to the scarce water resources in Rajasthan.

The Bench of Chief Justice S. N. Jha and Justice Mohammad Rafiq, issuing the interim order, took into account the Tarun Bharat Sangh plea that during the pendency of the writ petition fresh licences had been issued by the State Government for establishing liquor units.

The Tarun Bharat Sangh petition, filed on July 31, 2006, though its general secretary Kanhaiyalal Gujjar, made the State Government, Excise Commissioner, Department of Environment Rajasthan, RIICO, the Central Ground Water Board and the Central Ground Water Authority, parties. The petition said a proliferation of water intensive manufacturing units, especially of non-essential items such as liquor and beer, would be an ecological disaster for the desert State.

The petitioner said that despite a Cabinet decision by the previous Government on June 6, 2000, to not to issue any more licences for liquor units in Alwar and Jaipur districts, the new Government, after revoking the order on January 16, 2004, issued licences to many more which caused serious depletion to the ground water levels in these two districts.

The petitioner also provided a list of 23 liquor companies, which were given clearances for setting up units.

While the Government pleaded that the units had been given only no objection certificates and licences would be given only at a later stage, the petitioner also brought to the notice of the court that one company, MacDowel Alcobev Ltd of the United Breweries, has completed its construction of the unit at Chaupankhi in Tijara tehsil of Alwar district.

Three others— South Asia Breweries, Dewan's Modern Breweries and Uttam Sugar Mills— were under construction, it said.

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