Till yesterday they had a roaring business. Today they are jobless. Till yesterday they had their hands full, today they are sitting idle.
Foreign Liquor Retailers' Association secretary Chandrashekhar said: "Those in this business never thought that this would happen. Many of them have been in it for decades. They are now searching for a livelihood, which could be profitable enough to make both ends meet."
Unemployed, they are now considering businesses as diverse as shoes, garments, grocery, sweets, cellphones, electrical gadgets and other fast moving consumer goods.
Chandrashekhar, who entered the liquor trade in 2000, added that he is trying to enter the medicine trade to compensate for the livelihood and financial loss he has suffered recently. "I had to clear a chunk of stock at throwaway prices to save my shop near the New Police Lines in Patna from being sealed by excise officials had they found liquor after March 31. I am now thinking of becoming a carrying and forwarding (CNF) agent of any pharmaceutical company. Let's see what destiny has in store for me," he added.
Another former retailer, Sanjay Gandhi, who had a liquor store near Dak Bungalow square in the heart of the city, said he has thought about a few options but is yet to decide over it as the main criterion for selecting a business right now is that it should cover the high rental of his shop. "I have to pay around Rs 80,000 per month as rent for the shop and any business I opt for will have to be profitable enough to cover the high rental. Besides, a few sales people also have to be employed to man the shop and their cost also needs to be factored in," Sanjay said.
Then there are some like Foreign Liquor Retailers' Association president Nawal Kishore Singh, who are still harbouring hope that the tide will turn in their favour and are imposing their faith in the judiciary.
"Several retailers have filed cases in Patna High Court and they are currently in the process of being heard. We will wait for their outcome to decide on any other business. My son wants to become a stockist of a reputed confectionary company but I have asked him to wait," Nawal, who was in the business of whisky and rum for the past four decades.
Not wanting to exit the liquor trade, several erstwhile foreign liquor retailers formed a syndicate and applied for licences to open shops in Uttarakhand and Jharkhand but were not quite successful in their endeavour.
"Uttarakhand is a good place for liquor business, but those who want to obtain licences need to have domicile status of that state. We arranged for 11 such persons and put 231 applications through them for 21 shops, but we could not get even a single one when the result was announced through lottery. The number of applicants was huge. The fee for each application was Rs 22,000 and our syndicate lost around Rs 53 lakh," a former liquor retailer told The Telegraph.
Similarly, the syndicate applied for almost all shops in Jharkhand, but got licence for just 25 shops in Deoghar, Koderma and other locations along the state's border with Bihar. Some retailers, especially those who dealt in country liquor, have started taking the offer made by the government to provide licences to open booths to sell Sudha milk products like sweets, curd, lassi, butter and ghee.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar had said a couple of days ago that over 300 liquor retailers from different parts of Bihar have applied for Sudha milk booths and steps are being taken to provide them licences.
Meanwhile, the state government is considering providing jobs under MGNREGA scheme to such persons who were employed at liquor shops as sales personnel.
