No Liquor License For Events Till End of Elections: Event Organizers From Mangalore in a Fix

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued the latest guidelines and has directed the excise department not to issue a CL-5 or occasional license to anyone till the end of the elections. This has put a lot of people, who have scheduled functions where liquor was to be served, in a fix. The functions here are incomplete without serving liquor, especially the roce and mehendi ceremonies, weddings, and other functions. Not issuing licenses has worried a lot of people, and some of them even planned to cancel the functions.

On an average, the excise department in Dakshina Kannada issues about 10–15 CL-5 licenses and the number goes up during the season. Excise department commissioner J Ravishankar said that the issuance of CL-5 license has been temporarily stopped following the instructions by senior deputy election commissioner, Election Commission of India.