The Kerala High Court on Friday lambasted the State Government led by Congress over the lack of a proper liquor policy saying that its priority was to somehow solve the problems faced by bar owners and that it was not interested in arranging proper facilities for customers at the Government’s retail liquor outlets.
The Government has refused to upgrade the facilities for customers at the retail liquor outlets of Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), the State-run monopoly booze agent in Kerala, Justice Alexander Thomas observed while considering a petition regarding the refusal by the local panchayat to grant licence to a Bevco liquor outlet in Kollam district.
The judge told the Government that it could emulate the model of the efficient and flawless retail liquor distribution in Delhi to upgrade the facilities at the Bevco retail outlets. There is nothing wrong in emulating the Delhi model of liquor distribution in Kerala if the Delhi Metro Rail could be seen as a model for the Kochi Metro project, the court said.
The court also criticised Advocate General KP Dandapani for not attending Friday’s proceedings asking why he could not be present when such cases came up. When the case came up for consideration on Friday morning, neither the Advocate-General nor the Additional Advocate-General was present. After court’s criticism, the Advocate-General agreed to be present in court when such cases were taken up.
Retail liquor distribution in Kerala is carried out exclusively under the Government with Bevco running 337 outlets and the ConsumerFed under the Cooperation Department running some other shops. However, it is alleged that the Government has not been giving to these outlets the kind of attention it was giving to matters concerning private bar owners.
Bevco submitted before the court that several of its liquor outlets were operating in rented buildings without basic facilities despite the thousands of crores of rupees the Government was receiving from it annually in taxes on liquor prompting the court to criticise the Government for not complying with the proposal to appoint a commission on upgrading of retail outlets.
This is not the first time that the High Court had criticised the Government in connection with the retail liquor outlets. The court had earlier observed that the customers reaching the Government’s liquor outlets were being treated as cattle.
At the same time, the war in the Congress over the issue of granting licenses to the 418 bars, which were closed down in April 1 for lack of required facilities, intensified on Friday with more leaders coming out against the intransigence shown by State party president VM Sudheeran who was holding that bars with substandard facilities could not be allowed to function.
VD Satheesan, the AICC member who was appointed as Kerala party’s vice-president by Sonia Gandhi the same day Sudheeran was made president by her, said on Friday that a situation where one person (Sudheeran) was being seen as an anti-liquor crusader and all other leaders as pawns in the hands of the liquor lobby could not be accepted.
Satheesan admitted that there were differences of opinion in the party over the matter but he wanted bars with required facilities (among the 418 closed bars) be given licences, a position Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and most others in the Government had taken. However, Sudheeran has so far shown no sign of giving in to these pressures.
Meanwhile, State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, who had been working hard to solve the bar problem, and PP Thankachan, convener of the Congress-led ruling UDF, on Friday said that the Government’s liquor policy would be formulated by May 15. Thankachan said that a consensus would be founded in the Congress before taking the matter to UDF partners.