Dear Chandigarh Folks, forget about your Daaru parties as the city will go Liquor-free from April 1st onwards.

It is very hard to imagine Chandigarh, a city known for its carefree lifestyle and clubs without liquor. After Nitish Kumar’s strict stand on liquor free Bihar, it is now Chandigarh’s turn to go dry. Chandigarh is set to be the first liquor free Union Territory and the fourth in India including three other states Gujarat, Bihar and the North Eastern state of Mizoram.

Supreme court on Dec 16, 2016, ruled out that all the states and union territories to ban all the liquor shops in the state and national highways have come to haunt the liquor barons of Chandigarh. From April 1st Chandigarh will face a complete liquor ban even the ones in the hotels and restaurants. As per Supreme Court’s instructions, the licenses of all the liquor shops of the Union territory

Territory should be revoked before 1st of April, 2017. It’s all because of the overtly complex road structure of Chandigarh city. Twenty years ago, Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh requests Union Territory Administration to build roads in the city as the MC wasn’t able to do it due to financial reasons. Apart from one national highway (NH5), all other major roads are state highways in Chandigarh. All the sectors in the city are so designed, that the state highways vertically cross through each of them making them fall in the ambit of the Supreme Court’s new state highway liquor rule.

Chandigarh without ‘Daru’ is like Mumbai without ‘VadaPao’, Bihar without ‘LittiChokha’. The city that caught a lot of tourist attention with its flamboyance and nightlife over the years will go numb with no places available for boozing.

Come the April 1st, the City of Chandigarh will hope it is an April Fool’s day trick and Supreme Court will overturn its previous statement on Liquor ban next day to their good fortunes.

BY: Abhishesk Dey