March turns out to be sobering for tipplers

ludhiana: every year at this time of the year, there is an unexpected rush at the liquor vends. the countdown begins from the last week of march, and by the end of the month (march 31) the vends are selling away liquor at rock bottom prices.the devoted tipplers generally look forward to this period, a time when they could store up the booty for diwali and the wedding season.but march-end this year is quite calm. the usual frenzy associated with this month of bacchus is clearly missing becasue of the turnaround in the fundamentals of the liquor trade. as opposed to earlier years, when liquor vend owners were in a hurry to dispose off their leftovers at throwaway prices at this time of the year this year selling liquor seems to be a subdued affair. the reason: liquor vend auctioning this year was a somewhat low key affair as compared to last year. the auctioning, as some sources reveal, was a completely quiet and pre-settled affair, where the party made a bid merely few thousand rupees higher than the minimum price settled by the government, and took the vend. the rivalry among two feuding liquor cartels, the one led by jagdish singh garcha and another led by ponty chadda is also touted as a reason for auctioning being low key. moreover, auctioning was a compromised and settled package this year because of which people preferred not to move from where they had already established a market. henceforth, most of the vends were retained by the present owners for the coming year as well. garcha, lead by amrik singh dhillon at the auctioning, has retained most of the vends in model town, and beyond, while chadda will continue owning the vends in civil lines. and while this was a smooth and reasonable period of transaction for the vendors, people are less than happy with the settlement.