To the temperature hitting a new low everyday, Jaipur has one word of acknowledgement: Cheers! Ever since the winters struck home with the onset of New Year, there has been a staggering jump in liquor consumption in city. According to the excise department, liquor sales (this does not include beer) have almost doubled in the first week of January which has witnessed the minimum temperature in a freefall.
The daily average consumption of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) until a month back was between 28,000-30,000 litre per day. “According to sales data that we have received for the first week of January, the average daily consumption of IMFL in Jaipur has crossed 50,000-litre mark in all 4 zones of the district, combined,” an official with the excise department said.
Only December 31st night the average IMFL consumption was beaten as the sales touched 70,000 litre on New Year eve.
The temperature, which remained comfortably placed around 10-14 degrees in December, plummeted below the 5 degree mark with the onset of New Year. Since then a relentless cold wave has pervaded the landscape and our mindscape with temperatures falling every day in the last 72 hours.
On Monday, Jaipur saw the temperature falling to 2.3 degree Celsius, the lowest this season.
Even the liquor outlets vouch by the fact that there has been a marked increase in sales of IMFL, particularly rum. “We have started stocking rum these days as it flies of the shelf; since it is also taken with warm water as a deterrent to cold, its sales have gone up,” a liquor vendor on Tonk Road said.
Excise department has more startling figures. “Rum makes for almost 65 per cent of the total sales in past week; that’s phenomenal considering two out of every three bottles being sold in Jaipur is that of rum,” an official said.
Since the start of 2013, Jaipur has gulped down liquor worth Rs4.26 crore, half of which was consumed over the weekend.
src: Daily Bhaskar