Mr. HERBERT ROBERTS (Denbighshire, W.)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that on the 811 Soparibag Road in the city of Bombay there are within a distance of 1,640 yards fourteen shops for the sale of intoxicating liquors, and that an application has been made to the collector for permission to open another shop within the same area; whether he will state what steps will be taken to ascertain local public sentiment in the matter before the application is granted; and whether he is aware that permission is frequently given for the opening or transfer of shops without the inhabitants of the locality concerned having had an adequate opportunity of making known their objections.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Brodrick.) I have been in communication with the Governor of Bombay on the subject, and have ascertained from him that instructions were issued last year for a reduction in the number of shops in the Soparibag Road if, on careful local inquiry, they were found to be excessive. I presume that action has been taken accordingly. I am not aware that an application for permission to open another shop in the same area is pending. A licence for another shop in the Falkland Road has lately been refused. Before an application is granted, notices are posted up in the locality, public proclamation made, and residents personally informed by the Excise officers. The procedure is considered by the Bombay Government to give to the inhabitants an adequate opportunity of making known their objections.