Captain Amarinder Singh government gave a green signal to amend the Excise Act which will enable hotels, restaurants and clubs to serve alcohol within 500 meters of highways. By altering Section 26-A of Punjab Excise Act, 1914, all uncertainties for serving of liquor at hotels, restaurants and clubs would be removed by adding provisions after which it is cleared that no retail vend would be opened within 500 meters of the national and state highways.
However, these restrictions shall not apply to the hotels, restaurants and clubs situated on national and state highways, an official release said.
The Cabinet meeting chaired by Minister Amarinder Singh gave a nod to the draft amendment bill, 2017, in this regard, to be tabled during the current Budget session for enactment. While the Cabinet gave its formal approval to the budgetary proposals to be presented by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal in the state Assembly tomorrow.
The Congress government will present its maiden budget on Wednesday.
Simultaneously, the Cabinet also approved the restructuring of the departments of governance reforms and removal of grievances by merging them and renaming the merged entity as ‘Department of Governance Reforms and Public Grievances’. This decision is aimed at the betterment and synchronicity of the existing online grievances redressal mechanisms for effective citizen service delivery which would not only reduce the number of complaints but also bring in governance reforms, an official spokesperson said here.
