VIJAYAWADA: The State government is committed to implementing liquor prohibition in a phased manner, said Deputy Chief Minister (Excise) K Narayanaswamy while stressing that for the government revenue from excise is not as important as the welfare of the people.
Addressing the media on Friday, he said the government decided to ban alcohol as several families were ruined and women from those families are suffering. “In the first phase, liquor shops came down by 20 per cent,” he said.
He said taking a tough stance against illicit liquor sales, special drives were conducted for 10 days across the State and huge quantities of illicit liquor were seized. According to him, 25,62,500 ganja plants were destroyed. It was identified that ganja cultivation is being done in 512 acres, producing 3,84,350 kg, valued at `76.87 crore in the open market.
In addition to this, 521 litre country liquor was also destroyed along with 84,115 litre jaggery syrup, which is a key ingredient in the preparation of country liquor. Also, the government seized 1,482 kg of jaggery wash.
On January 28, the department officials conducted raids on illicit liquor production centres in Dhoke and Krishnagiri mandals of Kurnool district. The main accused Vinod Khalal and seven others were arrested. About 24 members were involved in manufacturing illicit liquor. So far, 11 members were arrested in the case and search is on for 13 others.
Similarly, on January 30, during the raids, 60 bottles of liquor smuggled from Karnataka were identified and seized from a person in Chintalapudi village of Guntur district. In this case, Kadiyam Koti Subbarao and Bhuthamekala Mohan Rao were arrested on February 6. Across the State, through a special drive, raids were conducted in 82 villages on February 6. During these raids, 13 cases were filed and 15 were arrested.
The minister further said the government closed 43,000 belt shops that were functioning during the tenure of the former TDP government.