Telangana government against home delivery of liquor

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is not in favour of implementing home delivery scheme for liquor as suggested by the Supreme Court on Friday in view of Covid-19 situation.

The State Excise and Prohibition Department, the official agency overseeing the liquor supply, is unsure on the possibility of using door-delivery services like Zomato and Swiggy, whose services the government had stopped recently. Moreover, they feel that it is not possible to create separate temporary marketing mechanism for liquor in villages and small towns.

Top officials of the department said that the government had examined the possibility of door delivery of liquor and even held a meeting with door-delivery agencies. Though the agencies were ready, they feel that it might be in violation of the Central guidelines since the Centre had permitted them to supply only essential commodities and liquor was not included in the necessary goods category.

"Unless the online delivery services resume operations in full capacity, liquor cannot be supplied at the doorsteps. Only the online services having strong network to reach the goods at the doorsteps in every nook and corner of the State," a senior Excise official said.

Licensed liquor dealers are also not ready to shell out extra money for liquor marketing as they were already burdened by the exorbitant licence fee and the losses incurred due to the closure of the shops for almost 40 days during the lockdown period.