The Congress party has jumped on to the band wagon of the public protests going on against the opening of new liquor shops in various parts of the State, including the State Capital. For a month in almost all the localities, the residents have come out of their houses protesting opening of new liquor shops. The protestors have also submitted memorandums in this regard, but the administration did not take any action to date.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Ravi Saxena alleged that the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government of Madhya Pradesh is providing patronage to the arrogance of the liquor mafias. “The morale of the liquor mafia is going up and up with each passing day due to the patronage it is getting from the BJP Government of State, and it is the result of this that the liquor mafia openly flouts the excise policy and its code of conduct and are pushing the people of State towards potation,” Saxena said in a statement on Tuesday.
Saxena further said that the liquor contractors by opening liquor shops and liquor drinking joints near temples, mosques, gurdwaras, schools and main roads made life of the common man miserable. Women are forced to suffer the comments, indecency and hooliganism of the drunken, he added. He said that the goons of the liquor contractors are openly threatening the people for opening the liquor shops and drinking joints at public places. Whereas the common man is registering protest by doing sit-in protests and the police station is silently watching the liquor mafia openly rubbishing the excise policies, he added.