Bus stop hijacked by bottles & parked egos

Bhopal: The liquor shop operating from a temporary shed constructed on a footpath at Manisha market in Shahpura is a glaring example of how powerful the liquor contractors are at least in choosing the location of their shop once the auction is done and they are allotted a shop. Following the auction of liquor shops in the year 2024, the shop at Manisha Market went to a new contractor and he was not given the traditional liquor shop in the market by the previous contractor. The new contractor insisted on having a shop somewhere in the front row of market only and for afew days, he kept selling liquor from outside the old shop itself till the district administration agreed to provide him a shop on the other side of the road and the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) erected a temporary structure on the footpath on the other side of road and gave it to the vendor. The shop was right behind the Shahpura bus stop.
TOI had taken up the issue with the BMC and the district excise administration at that time. When pointed oUt that BMC is said to have erected temporary the structure and rented it to liquor shops, the then additional commissioner, BMC, MP Singh reiterated that BMC has no role in deciding where the liquor shop is located, it's the excise department which decides it. The then assistant excise commissioner, Bhopal, Sajendra Mori, when asked whether they follow any policy in deciding the location of a liquor shop said "There should be only one shop in an area." When asked whether there are any other provisions on where the shop should not be allowed to run, he said "A religious place, educational institution or a bus stand and such places." About a liquor shop being operating from behind a bus stop in Shahpura, Mori said "It should be only a bus stand, where the buses come and go."The vendor has changed by now but the shop stays. The bus stop stands deserted with no waiting passengers nor any Red buses coming but only a crowd of tipplers and their vehicles all around including the bus stop particularly during the rush evening hours. "From early evening to late in night, you have a row of two-wheelers, cars and SUVs occupying a substantial portion of the road in front of the liquor shop. Though there is a security guard asking people not to park the vehicle very much in the middle of the road but a SUV, if parked by the roadside still occupies half the road," said Rakesh Sharma, a resident of Shahpura locality. Besides, the road remain dark in the absence of street light ahead of the liquor shop, making people to park their vehicle ahead of the shop after buying the booze and having a few pegs there before moving ahead. As Falguni Mishra, who also lives in a colony nearby, pointed out what is happening around a liquor shop, people boozing in cars or in open, and small fights among the tipplers is all left to the liquor vendor or the people ‘mobbing' the shop to take care of with no regulation from either the police or the excise department. A senior police official, however, said that police keep patrolling the areas where liquor shops are located.