THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the Excise Minister T P Ramakrishnan claims sanction for breweries was given as per norms, it has been pointed out that the decision is in violation of the stance taken by the previous Left Governments led by E K Nayanar and V S Achuthanandan. Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy pointed out that E K Nayanar-led Left Government in 1999 had appointed a committee under then Principal Secretary Vinod Rai to examine about 110 applications for new distilleries.
After going through them, the committee had rejected them. “When a request came before the Achuthanandan government to shift a brewery, they rejected the same citing the GO issued during the Nayanar government. This GO still exists.
Therefore, how can the Excise Minister say that all procedures have been followed. So far, the government has not made any changes in this GO,” said Chandy. In 2008, a distillery in Palakkad had submitted an application to shift their distillery from Perumatty panchayat to Puthussery panchayat. But the request was rejected based on the 1999 order. It has been pointed out the current order sanctioning breweries and distillery is a violation of the Abkari rules. While the order says that the distillery can be set up in Thrissur, there’s no clarity about where exactly it can be set up.