The Congress has strongly objected to the decision taken by the state cabinet to lower the prices of alcohol in the state. The Pradesh Congress Committee president Pritam Singh opined that the state government’s excise policy fully favours the liquor mafia, encourages bootlegging and aims to supply liquor to each home in the villages of the state.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the PCC president said that on the one hand the BJP government is raising the cost of important items and services like cooking gas and fare of roadways corporation buses while on the other it is making alcohol cheaper to turn Uttarakhand into a ‘liquor state’ and affect the health of the people negatively.Despite chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat assuring that the liquor trade will be decreased, the government is using even vans to deliver liquor at home, which the Congress strongly objects to.
Singh also questioned shifting of authority to grant liquor and beer bar license from the excise department to the district magistrate, stating that this will encourage corruption and bootlegging.
The BJP government has failed to control price rise and is shifting the burden of its follies on to the public, said the PCC president.
He warned that the Congress will now have to undertake a campaign against the liquor policy of the state government. It will be recalled that in its meeting on Saturday, the state cabinet had approved the proposal to drop liquor prices in the state.