Ten tourist spots exempted in new liquor policy

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ten tourist spots have been exempted from the restrictions on issuing of bar licences cited in the new liquor policy.

The policy was approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday.

Bekal, Vythiri, Kumarakom, Alappuzha, Fort Kochi, Kumili, Munnar, Varkala, Kovalam and Ashtamudi had been exempted, Excise Minister K Babu said.  Under the new policy, the UDF Government plans to confine the issuing of bar licences to five-star hotels by 2013-14.

In the first phase of this plan, licences will be confined to four-star hotels and above by the next fiscal. "But hotels in these 10 spots have been exempted as they are tourism spots. We will continue to issue licences here to 20-room three-star hotels and above. The selection is based on a request by the Tourism Department,’’ the Excise Minister said.

The hotel-to-hotel distance limit also will be not  applicable in the case of the 10 places.  The new policy says there should be a minimum distance of 200 m between two four-star hotels for issuing bar licences. The policy has raised the minimum age for buying and selling liquor to 21. Good Fridays will be dry days from now on.  The government has slashed the amount of liquor that could be possessed by an individual at a time from 27.1 litres to 15. Only 3 litres of IMFL can be kept in possession at a given time.  Bars in panchayats and municipalities will be open between 8 am and 11 pm and in corporations between 9 am and midnight.

The policy makes it mandatory that statutory warnings against the consumption of liquor be displayed when boozing scenes are shown in movies.