The Odisha government has decided to resume the counter sale of liquor from Wednesday across the state.

The online sale of liquor and home delivery that began in the last week of May failed to garner a good response. All the liquor shops have been closed since the third week of March following the outbreak of coronavirus.

In a notification, the state excise department said: “After allowing home delivery of foreign liquor/beer by the licensed off or on shops for more than one month with effect from May 24, now government allows counter sales of these items in the licensed off and on shops in addition to home delivery.”

The counter sale will start from July 1 and the shops will remain open for the counter sale from 7AM to 6PM.

The notification further said, “In order to regulate crowd at the shops, an online system for generation of etoken for slot booking has been developed by the Odisha State Beverage Corporation (OSBC) for taking prior appointment to visit the shops. This is available on OSBC portal under the line “etoken for slot booking”

Officials maintained that the portal is mobile and the link can be stored on the home screen. The e-token generated can be downloaded from the link received through SMS on the mobile. The retailers have been asked to prominently display the “osbc.co.in and line e-token” for slot booking in their display boards.

The state government has asked the retailer shops not to entertain customers who are not using facemasks and are violating social distancing norms.

Secretary, Odisha Liquor Vendors’ Association, Pravat Kishore Das told The Telegraph: “In order to regulate the crowd, we have been asked to erect barricades whatever required and we have already made the preparation. We will also follow the norms of social distancing. We will also require ensuring proper marking on the ground outside the shop to facilitate safe distancing.”