Stallholders at Tekka Food Centre has received letters from the Police on 22 July, informing them that starting from 1 August, alcohol will only be allowed to be sold from 6 am until 6 pm on Sundays.
Currently, the stallholders can sell alcohol from 6 am to 11.59 pm on Sundays, 6 hours longer than the new restriction. This comes after public gave feedback about groups of alcohol drinkers on Sunday evenings. The police said that those people were “posing law and ordering risks”. Their action caused other patrons who have their dinner at the place feel uncomfortable.
Notification of the new restriction has been sticked on the tables inside the food centre.
Tekka Food Centre has 10 stalls with liquor licenses. Some of them had written about the new rule and one official appeal has been lodged with the Liquor Appeal Board.
One of the business owners said to TodayOnline that the rule is unfair because her stall sees six time more business on Sundays compared to the other days of the week and this arrangement could make the business drop 70 per cent with the shortened liquor licensing hour.
The police had confirmed that some of the stalls had written about the new rule to them and one official appeal has been lodged with the Liquor Appeal Board.
A Liquor Control (Supply and Consumption) Bill was earlier passed in Parliament on March 2015 and took effect from April 2015. Tekka Food Centre is located in Little India and it falls within the Liquor Control Zone (LCZ).
Under the Act, members of public can only drink alcohol in public places from 7 am until 10.29 pm everyday of the week. But for the area which fall within the LCZ, Geylang and Little India, the Act was specified. On weekends, members of public cannot drink in public places from 7 am of Saturday to 7 am of the following Monday and during public holidays the rule applied from 7 pm of the eve of a public holiday to 7 am of the day after the public holiday.
The Bill was enacted due to an incident which happened in December 2013. Hundreds of foreign workers confronted anti-riot forces after a worker was run over by a bus. 39 officers were said to be injured, 6 police and nine SCDF vehicles damaged.
Under the Liquor Control (Supply and Consumption) Act, the Home Affairs Minister may vary the liquor licensing hours. Anyone who supplies or allows the consumption of liquor outside the window faces a maximum fine of S$10,000.