New Delhi: Welcoming the New Year is a tradition that the world follows in very many ways. While some prefer spending it with their near and dear ones, some like to travel as it’s generally a long holiday weekend.
Delhiites, however, choose revelry on such occasions, and the fact that the denizens in the national capital welcomed 2019 by consuming 16.5 lakh liquor bottles pretty much proves the extent of merrymaking people in Delhi can go to.
Official data from the Delhi government said that there was a phenomenal surge in the sale of alcohol on New Year’s Eve. State officials said that the overall excise collection done on December 31 amounted to Rs 16.4 crores, according to government records.
“Around 1,659,636 bottles of liquor were sold on December 31, including liquor stores clubs and resto-bars in the national capital,” a government official said, according to news agency PTI.
However, this isn’t the first time Delhi has set standards for the consumption of alcohol. Back in December 2017, the Delhi government had earned Rs 458 crores from liquor sales. In the financial year 2016-17, the overall revenue from the sale of alcohol amounted to Rs 4243 crores.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police fined around 500 revellers, along with 509 challans for drink-and-drive on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 this year. The figure, however, shows a sharp decline in the numbers from last year, the PTI report said.
The Delhi police had on December 31 deployed around 15,000 police personnel across the national capital region to ensure that celebrations go off smoothly, including malls, markets and metro stations.
Times Now
