VIJAYAWADA: Prohibition and Excise Minister KS Jawahar beat a hasty retreat on Tuesday after asserting in unequivocal terms that the State government was promoting beer as a health drink. The Minister, in a debate on the state’s liquor policy on a news channel, had said emphatically that beer was a health drink and even asserted that he was ready to prove the same.
As his statement triggered protests with YSRC legislator Roja branding the State government anti-women, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu summoned him on Tuesday evening and reportedly gave him a piece of his mind. When contacted, Jawahar told TNIE he had never termed beer a health drink and denied saying that the government was promoting it. “My statement was distorted. I was merely trying to point out that beer had less percentage of alcohol,” he clarified.
The Minister further claimed that he doesn’t know the difference between beer and breezer and appealed to netizens not to mock him on social media.Even as he struggled to extricate himself from the controversy, the State government issued orders classifying all roads under the control of the Roads and Buildings Department and falling within the limits of municipal corporations, municipalities, and mandal headquarters as district major roads.
The move came less than 24 hours after the State Cabinet directed officials of the Roads and Buildings Department and Prohibition and Excise Department to discuss and denotify State roads for the purpose of allowing liquor shops.
In a shot in the arm for the government, the Supreme Court declared earlier in the day that there was nothing wrong in denotifying even national highways if they were within a city.
"We are waiting for the Supreme Court order. After studying it, we will take appropriate decision on allowing liquor shops on national highways within a city,” a senior official of the Roads and Buildings Department told TNIE.
The total number of liquor shops in the State is 4,380 of which 3,180 are located on highways. Of the 885 bars, as many 550 are on highways. Now the state government is free to allow all these liquor shops and bars. Despite maintaining that the government is not considering liquor business as a source of income, the Cabinet had on Monday discussed the denotification of roads as a possible way out of the apex court’s recent verdict banning liquor shops on highways. The Cabinet had decided that at least State roads could be denotified to begin with.