Congress leader and former Union Minister Srikant Jena has urged upon Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to make Odisha free from liquor.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, Jena stated that making Odisha liquor-free will pave the way for prosperity. He said that during the last 16 years, the consumption of liquor has gone up due to the Government’s stress on promoting liquor for the sake of earning revenue. But the wider consumption of wine has impoverished the State by aggravating poverty, Jena stated.
Citing Bihar, the former Union Minister asked if the neighbour State could ban liquor, why can’t OdishaIJ He said that Bihar will lose `4,000 crore revenue by banning liquor, where as Odisha will lose `3,000 crore. He argued that when Bihar is ready to lose the revenue even when it has not scope as much as Odisha has in generating revenue from mines, why Odisha is not prepared to sacrifice the revenue loss from wine.
Jena suggested that the Government can generate revenue to the tune of `15,000-`20,000 crore by implementing cess on minerals like iron ore, chromite, coal etc and offset the revenue loss owing to ban on liquor sale.
Jena reminded that during the 1992 Cuttack hooch tragedy when 200 persons were killed by consuming spurious liquor, he, as Cuttack MP, had apprised the then Chief Minister Biju Patnaik to ban liquor from the State and the latter had readily acquiesced. Jena lamented that the same could not happen till date.