All political parties barring ruling Congress have decided to organize protest programs against the State government’s action for conducting lottery on June 26 for allotment of liquor shops.
Liquor Control Movement Committee and APSA have jointly organised a meeting at Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram here on Sunday. It demanded that the State government disclose its policy on belt shops. It also demanded that the government alone should operate the liquor shops on its own.
The committee leaders including former chief justice of Allahabad High Court Dr Ambati Laxmana Rao, Kaki Madhava Rao, V Laxmana Reddy, S. Srinivas Reddy and political leaders G Kishan Reddy (BJP), Mandava Venkateshwar Rao (TDP), K Ramakrishna (CPI), Dr Shravan Kumar (TRS), S Malla Reddy (CPM), D V Krishna (CPI-ML, New Democracy), Bandaru Ramamohan Rao (Lok Satta) and others participated in the meeting.
The meeting has unanimously resolved to meet the Governor ESL Narasimhan to plead with him to make the government change the liquor policy adopted by it and remove the belt shops. The meeting also decided to organize protest programs against the government conducting lottery to allot liquor shops. It also called upon the people to remove the belt shops in the villages.
The political parties, which participated in the meeting, have urged the government to stop sales of liquor completely from the day of issuing notification for any election —- from panchayat to Lok Sabha election till the day of completion of counting of votes.
In a welcome address, Dr Laxmana Rao said that the government’s new liquor policy seems to yield more revenue for the exchequer than previous years. He said that it was time all political parties, irrespective of affiliations, to fight against the government to control liquor sales. He said that it was unfortunate that the government did not care the Committee’s appeal to the Chief Minister and Cabinet Sub-Committee to abolish belt shops and run liquor shops on its own.
Stating that liquor was more harmful than dreaded AIDS, Kishan Reddy wanted ‘Dubagunta-type of movement’ to be revived in the State. Charging the government with succumbing to liquor lobbying, he said that there were no liquor sales in Gujarat and the government was not getting a single rupee from liquor. Yet, that State was ahead in all sectors compared to other States.
Mandava Venkateshwar Rao said that the State government was not bothered about the appeals of the Opposition parties for maintenance of liquor shops by the government and removal of belt shops. He has alleged that liquor syndicates were making thousands of crores of rupees by selling 25 per cent non-duty paid liquor. He also said that the TDP cadre will take part in the protest program against the new liquor policy scheduled to be held on June 26.
Former chief secretary Kaki Madhava Rao said that movement against belt shops should be intensified irrespective of political affiliations. He said that the State government was aiming to get revenue from the poor people by enslaving them to liquor. He said that the new liquor policy adopted by the government was against the decision of Cabinet Sub-Committee.
Ramakrishna (CPI) has called upon the people to obstruct the government from conducting lottery on June 26 for allotment of liquor shops. He also said that the government must step in to run liquor shops itself as was being done in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Delhi.
Malla Reddy (CPI-M) said that sales of beer cases in the State exceeded six crores per year and the water used for brewing beers was equivalent to the water needs of Hyderabad city. He alleged that the government was making the people drink liquor to benefit the corporate hospitals. The government was playing games with the lives of poor people, he added.
Dr Shravan Kumar (TRS) said that new liquor policy has turned into ‘Anarogyasri’ policy. The government was making efforts to help the private businessman by conducting the lottery because the political leaders were part of the liquor mafia. He said that the government would provide jobs to 30,000 persons directly if it chose to run liquor shops by itself. He demanded that the government stop the policies which would encourage brokers.
D V Krishna (CPI-ML New Democracy) said the demand for industrial and agricultural products and employment opportunities would increase if the people stopped spending money on liquor. Rammohan Rao has said that there would not be any belt shop without permission of the ‘Grama Sabha’.
Committee State convener Laxmana Reddy said that though the government had allocated Rs 110 crores last year to educate the people on harmful effects of liquor consumption, it spent not a single rupee. “It shows how sincere the government is”, he added. He appealed to the people to raise their voice against liquor saying that ‘not to bring liquor to my village’.
Apsa director S Srinivas Reddy, Co-ordinator A Shivarani, Progressive Women Association state general secretary Jhansi also spoke. (NSS)