Night curfew in the city is causing losses to the liquor sellers these days.
"Since last March 20, when the lockdown was imposed following the spread of coronavirus, we are passing through rough weather in the liquor business. The business picked steam in the July-August when the unlock phase started. But we are back to the square one," Liquor Sellers Welfare Association General Secretary KL Maurya said.
He said the Excise Department was the highest revenue earner and the liquor sellers contribute to the revenue earning but due to the coronavirus scare, we suffered loss. A number of the shop owners could not do business as their shops fell in the containment zone. But the government has not refunded their licence fee as yet," he said.
Maurya said the liquor sellers were bracing themselves to overcome the onslaught of nature when another onslaught befell again in March and night curfew was imposed.
He said the liquor sellers were facing loss of about 10 per cent due to the night curfew.
"We have a loss of one hour per day as the curfew is effective from 9 pm every day," he said.
Maurya added that the worst hit were the model shop owners where the customers had stopped visiting in the evening. "Earlier, there was a huge rush of customers."  
On condition of anonymity, some shop owners in Ashiyana, Indira Nagar, Gomti Nagar, Mahanagar and other parts of the city said the visit of customers to the shops start thinning from 8 pm every day. "The cops start patrolling the area to ensure that the shops close by 9 pm and this scares the liquor customers also," the shop owners said.      
But the liquor sellers will not petition the state government to give them reprieve as of now. "This is nature's fury that we all are facing. To prevent the spread of coronavirus, curfew and other preventive measures are necessary as these are the only way to save the humans," a liquor seller said.
He said other businessmen were facing similar problems these days.
"We hope that the situation will be under control soon and we will be doing good business in a normal way in the days to come," he said.