Residents of Bengaluru are in for a disappointment as the Centre, citing a Supreme Court order, told the Karnataka High Court on Thursday that it cannot consider the state government's proposal to denotify stretches of national highways.
This means that all the pubs and bars along MG Road and Brigade Road, which are part of the national highways, will have to abide by the apex court's order and stop serving alcohol to their customers.
"Due to the apex court dismissing the application filed by NGO Arrive Safe Society of Chandigarh on July 11 and the court's order (December 15, 2016 order banning sale of liquor on either side of national highways) not being reviewed or modified by any subsequent orders, we are constrained to observe that we are not in a position to consider proposals of the state government for denotification of NHs at this stage," the Centre told Lakshminarayana, Additional Chief Secretary Karnataka of the Public Works Department, in a letter on Tuesday, August 14.
The letter added that there was a possibility of the national highway corridors within Karnataka getting discontinued and isolated if the proposal to denotify 609.65 kms of national highways was taken into consideration, the Times of India reported.
"Denotification will not serve the objective of having continuous, well-developed and maintained national highway corridors offering uninterrupted and seamless movement of long-distance traffic and safe and comfortable journey," the letter by the central government stated.
Therefore, the Centre should alone be vested with the responsibility to develop and maintain such stretches, the letter added.
The Centre also said that the construction of bypasses was not completely commissioned for any of the mentioned stretches, which is why they cannot be denotified as national highways at this stage in accordance with the policy of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
The central government also pointed out several holes in the Karnataka government's proposal, which was submitted on July 31, to denotify stretches of national highways so that liquor shops in some areas of the state could be re-opened.
Referring to the state's proposal to denotify 25 kms of service roads on either side of the elevated national highways developed as part of BOT projects, the Centre said that it could not take it into consideration since service roads are part of the national highways.
The court will hear petitions filed by bar owners on Friday.
