Keeping in mind how "lives were on the line under Jagan Mohan Reddy's rule", the Naidu dispensation wants to provide them with clean, pure and unadulterated alcohol.
Published Nov 07, 2024 | 3:21 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 07, 2024 | 4:45 PM
A liquor shop. (iStock)
Strange are the ways of some governments. Take, for instance, Andhra Pradesh.
The TDP, while fighting the erstwhile Jagan Mohan Reddy dispensation, had promised to provide quality liquor to the citizens of Andhra Pradesh at affordable prices.
It sympathised with the people who were losing their health claiming that the YSRCP had pushed substandard and spurious liquor into the market to make a fast buck.
After the TDP emerged victorious, demolishing the “dictatorship” of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, it kept its promise to the people of Andhra Pradesh.
It is said that one of the crucial factors that helped Naidu win the election was the lack of quality liquor at affordable prices. Now that the TDP is in the saddle, it wasted no time in bringing up a new liquor policy, making popular brands available to the people.
Now, it is going one step ahead — ensuring the quality of the liquor.
Excise and Prohibition Minister Kollu Ravindra said that the government was very much concerned about the health of the people.
Keeping in mind how “lives were on the line under Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rule”, the Naidu dispensation wants to provide them with clean, pure and unadulterated alcohol.
Ravindra said that the regional excise laboratories in Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Chittoor, Kurnool and Kakinada would have gas chromatography technology to test the quality of liquor before bottling.
Along with it, the parameters for testing the quality of liquor have been increased to 13 from the single test earlier. Blended whiskey brandy and vodka will have to clear eight parameters before they are sold in retail. This would help in the removal of adulterants that would cause chemical reactions when the liquor is consumed.
It sounds very odd, doesn’t it? The government on one hand says drinking is injurious to health, and on the other, goes to great lengths to provide easy access to liquor, after testing its quality against several parameters.
All in the aid of protecting the health of the people while allowing them to drink up. The easy way out is to ban it, but who will provide the kick to the government which comes only in the form of excise revenue?
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
