Over 12,000 vie for 507 liquor vends in UP

ShalabhLucknow: On average, 24 individuals will participate for each retail liquor vend to be allocated through a lottery draw on May 29 in UP. Out of the 660 retail vends for country liquor and IMFL, entrepreneurs showed interest in operating 507 shops only.To improve viability of the leftover shops, the excise department slashed the licence fees by 20% compared to last year during the fifth lottery round. Drawing to a close on May 29, during the fifth round the focus was on getting the 660 shops settled out of the 27,308 operational in the last financial year.However, no individual agreed to operate 153 shops out of the leftover 660, compelling the department to relook at the factors that could improve the viability of these shops. Meanwhile, 12,493 applicants deposited the processing fees for the 507 shops.The winners will be decided through online software on May 29, after running the algorithm at around 11 am. Senior officials said that 350 country liquor shops, 95 composite shops, 52 model shops and 10 cannabis (bhaang) shops will be settled on May 29.Intense battle for shops linked to fugitive codeine syrup mastermind in VaranasiFour shops linked to the mastermind of the codeine syrup syndicate, absconding Shubham Jaiswal, witnessed intense battle during the last lottery draw, soon after the fees were rationalised. People associated with Shubham were involved in operating four composite shops in Kazzakpura, Paredkothi, Khojwa and Lehertara localities. Having been renewed by the licensees by Mar 31, the shops were attached in Apr as investigative agencies unearthed a financial trail between the income from the shops and Shubham’s business operations.In Varanasi, 24 shops were floated in the fifth round and all have been grabbed. Since 1,978 individuals deposited the money by the deadline of 5 pm on May 25, on average 82 applicants were contesting with each other to get into the liquor business.According to the excise officials, for the composite shops in Kazzakpura, Paredkothi, Khojwa and Lehertara, 147, 109, 85 and 58 forms were received along with processing fees before the deadline.