HYDERABAD: The Telangana leaders’ call for a day-long bandh of liquor shops in the region evoked little response in the twin cities on Wednesday with most of them going about their business as usual. “Only some dealers were informed of the bandh call which is why most of the wine shops were opened in the twin cities and other places in the Telangana region,” claimed B Venkateswara Rao, general secretary of the AP State Wine Dealers’ Association. He felt another possible reason could be that wine shops were closed earlier on Sept 30 and admitted, “I have seen that for every single shop that was closed, 10 were open in the city. Pubs and bars are opened, so no problem for alcoholics.” He also said that though wine shop dealers in Ranga Reddy district and Hyderabad had agreed to enforce the bandh, they did not. There are about 400 wine shops in the State capital and if closed, each of them would stand to lose at least Rs 30,000 per day.The wine shop owners have their own reasons for defying the bandh call. Owner of Sandeep wines, Somajiguda, said, “I have opened my shop at noon. If any Telangana agitators come and force us to down the shutters, we will do so.” In the same breath, however, he pointed out that wine shop owners cannot afford to close for even a day as they have to recover the huge amount they shell out to get the licence fee.Owner of a wine shop at Ameerpet was more forthright. “We were part of the wine shop owners who joined the T stir. Who will come and demand us to close the shop?” he questioned and added, “I know everything and everybody, no problem. The T-JAC has called for wine shops’ bandh but did not mention the timeline, so wine shops can be opened in the evening.”Consumers, though, were cautious. Some like K Jwalamukahi, a techie, stocked up enough for the day anticipating a shutdown. “I have enough stock of beers in my refrigerator. One-day bandh does not matter. We can manage,” he said.
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