MADURAI: The state government told the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Monday that it is firm on its decision to continue prohibiting and sale of toddy in Tamil Nadu.
In her counter affidavit on a PIL filed by G Thirumurugan of NTK, seeking to review toddy prohibition in TN, deputy secretary of Prohibition and Excise department P Kumari stated that as far as toddy is concerned, every palm tree is considered a manufacturing unit.
Therefore, it is impossible to monitor production under each palm tree as adulteration could occur at any point from tapping to selling, which prompted the government to ban toddy tapping in the past, she explained.
Kumari also denied the allegations made by the petitioner that the traditional occupation of palm tappers is being rendered extinct for want of institutional and economic support.
Palm tappers are already free to tap Neera (from coconut tree) and Padani (from palmyra tree), which can be sold as such and are being marketed through the TN Palm Products Development Board, Palmgur Societies or Federations, etc, she pointed out.
The allegation that palmyra, despite being the state tree of TN, was not being conserved by the state government is also factually incorrect, she claimed and elaborated on the steps being taken to plant palm saplings under coastal habitat rehabilitation schemes.
Further stating that similar petitions were rejected by the high court in the past, she requested the court to dismiss the above petition as well. A bench of justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel posted the case after two weeks for further hearing.
