HBI Staff | Hyderabad 
In order to avoid unwanted crowding at liquor shops, Jharkhand government has roped in food start-ups like Swiggy and Zomato to deliver liquor at people’s doorsteps in some of the big cities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Bokaro.
According to Excise and Prohibition Secretary Vinay Kumar Chaoubey, additional facility of e-token will be given to the people for purchasing liquor in other 15 small district headquarters through which they will be given preference over those standing in the queues at retail liquor shops.
Notably, giving relaxation in Lockdown 4, the State Government on Monday announced to give permission to open retail liquor shops along with some other establishments related to hardware items, construction related items, books, stationaries and retail outlets of telecom companies outside the containment zones.
“We have adopted hybrid system for making liquor available in some of the big cities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro, Hazaribagh, Deoghr, Dhanbad, Ramgarh, Giridih and Palamu by opening the retail liquor shops where people can go and purchase liquor taking care of the social distancing. Secondly, people can get home delivery of liquor at their doorsteps through the two food aggregators – Zomato and Swiggi by downloading the app on their mobile phones,” said Chaubey.
Chaubey said that ore food delivery start-ups will also be roped in to provide more options to the people. Besides that, two types of arrangements have been made for the other 15 district headquarters also.
“Firstly, they can purchase liquor from the retail shops and secondly, for those who want to avoid long queues on liquor shops, e-token will be issued to them by logging on the site https://jhexcisetoken.nic.in through which they can get liquor from the shops in the given slot without standing in the queue,” said Chaubey.
People will be given preference over those standing in the queue if they show the e-token, he added.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
