Bhubaneswar, Apr 20: The Works department of the State government has announcement to redesignate state highways as urban roads, in order to avoid the SC’s decision of ban on all liquor shops at the National and State highways, was protested by State Excise minister, Damodar Rout yesterday as he alleged that the former took this decision without consulting the Excise department although it was decided at a high level meeting. He further expressed his disappointment on this.
After the SC gave out orders to shift all the liquor shops to a distance of 500 metres on both side of the national and state highways by Mar 31, the Works Department stated that the roads passing the municipal corporations, municipalities, notified area councils and sub-divisional headquarters have been redesignated as ‘urban roads’. Also, all roads falling within the limits of the block headquarters and tehsil headquarters are also ‘urban roads’.
