Liquor shops lottery process held peacefully in Tirupati

Tirupati: The much-anticipated lottery process for liquor shops tenders in the district has been completed successfully and peacefully on Monday. As part of the new excise policy of the government, the process was held at Shilparamam function hall under the presence of district Collector Dr S Venkateswar, Joint Collector Shubham Bansal and officials of Excise department.

The notification inviting tenders for 227 shops in the district got overwhelming response with 3,920 applications received from the enthusiasts fetching Rs 78.40 crore to the government exchequer.

Tirupati Urban has the highest number of 32 shops followed by Sullurpet with 14 and Naidupet with 13 shops. Further Tirupati rural was given 12 shops. For 32 shops in Tirupati urban, 985 applications were received.

It indicates that each shop in Tirupati urban received 30 applications on an average while the average is 17 per shop in the district. There were reports of the formation of syndicates in filing applications for various shops. Interestingly, leaders of various parties joined hands to form syndicates. The government fixed Rs 2 lakh as application fee for each shop.

The Collector and the Joint Collector conducted the lottery process transparently in the presence of applicants and the entire procedure for the selection of shop winners was completed by noon. Collector Venkateswar said that those, who won the lottery, can begin operating their shops from October 16 and they can collect stock from the depot starting tomorrow.

The payment for the shops can be made in six instalments, with the first due on Monday or by Tuesday evening. To facilitate the process, counters were set up by the State Bank of India at the function hall to allow the winners to make cash deposits for their challans and many applicants took advantage of this service. Prohibition and Excise Officer Naga Malleswara Reddy expressed his satisfaction with the smooth execution of the lottery, crediting the Collector and Joint Collector for their support. The liquor shops will be open from 10 am to 10 pm starting from October 16 and the licenses will be valid until September 30, 2026. Assistant Commissioner Srinivasa Chari, Assistant Excise Superintendent Vasudeva Choudhary and other staff were present.

Meanwhile, in Chittoor district, 2,266 applicants filed their tender forms for 104 liquor shops. The shops were allotted to 104 lucky winners in the lottery process which was held by District Collector Sumit Kumar and SP Manikanta Chandolu. Excise and Prohibition deputy commissioner Vijay Sekhar was also present.