VIJAYAWADA: Even as the State government proclaims that it is wedded to the cause of bringing down substantially consumption of liquor, its actions are always to the contrary. Forget Dubagunta Rosamma, NTR and the total prohibition in early ‘90s. Those days are gone. They are not even a blur now. The gen-next does not even know that a woman by name Rosamma ever existed whose movement against arrack in 1992, had led to NTR making total prohibition his poll plank and rode to power in 1994.
But now, the TDP government cocks a snook at its own policy of discouraging liquor consumption.
Regardless of the fact that their action brings a sense of helplessness to women folk, tipplers flock at bars and liquor shops by nightfall in every village, town and city. There might be scarcity for water, milk or essential commodities but not liquor. This reporter remembers how liquor supply was restored in Amalapuram in East Godavari district within 24 hours after the town was devastated by a powerful cyclone the previous night in 1996.
The day after the cyclone, children were crying for milk and women were fighting for water, but tipplers had no bother in the world as they had what they wanted. There was no power supply and yet they were content with spending time in the dim pool of light shed by oil lamps as they nursed drink in their glasses.
The situation remains the same even now and in fact it is much worse. A cash cow that liquor sale is, the present government, which is already in financial straitjacket, is not ready to forego the excise duty on the sale of liquor and huge chunks of money that it would get by way of registration of bars and renewal of licences.
In fact, the government issued a GO only on Friday that licences issued now on for bars would be valid for five years and the fee would be `2 lakh while registration fee is as high as `28 lakh if one wants to set up a bar in a city having a population of more than five lakh.
In fact, in cabinet meeting on June 15, a discussion took place on crown bars where decisions were taken to issue licences for micro- breweries, star hotels, tourism centres, beer and liquor parlours, beach shacks and resorts. Prohibition and Excise Minister KS Jawahar said a few days ago that the government was contemplating allowing crown bars or elite bars as they are sometimes called, which represent a highly westernised culture.
The government appears to have so much concern for the beer lovers in the State that it was moved by the fact that not enough beer is being produced in AP commensurate with the requirement. The excise department estimates that 60 per cent of beer is imported from other States and therefore it wants to issue licences for those who plan to set up micro-breweries which would have a capacity of 1,000 litres per day.
Beer from micro-brewery would have to be consumed on the premises only. This way the government would get a lot of revenue in the form of licence fee and excise duty.This apart, the government has taken a decision circumvent the Supreme Court direction that all liquor shops and bars on national highways should be removed by July 1. It wants to declare the portion of national highways that pass through a town as district major road. The contention here is that they are no longer national highways as bypass roads have been built outside the towns.
Therefore, the original national highway that used to go through the town would now be a district major road and therefore the Supreme Court order would not apply to them. The Roads and Buildings Department has been entrusted with the task of taking up the issue with the Centre for denotifying the portion of old national highways that used to go through towns so that they could be brought under the purview of the civic bodies.
The government is working with undue haste to get these roads denotified since about 3,000 liquor shops are located on highways only of the total 4,500 shops for which licences have been issued. If these shops close down, the State would be in a very tight spot.
The State has projected a revenue of `5,886 crore for 2017-18, which is 11 per cent of total receipts for the exchequer this financial year. If it complies with the Supreme Court judgement and winds up shops on the national highways, it would have to kiss goodbye to a major chunk of this revenue, a prospect which is chilling and foreboding for a cash-strapped State like AP.
What is more amusing is that after the cabinet meeting, a statement was issued in which the government swore that its intention is to discourage consumption of liquor, ironically, after explaining the new excise policy aimed at promoting liquor consumption more. This is obviously not to ruffle the feathers of the fairer sex. But women may not be that naive or dumb.
Assistant Resident Editor, Vijayawada
(raj@newIndianexpress.com)