liquor sector in Kerala returned to its normal operations for all practical purposes on Sundays certain restrictions imposed for the past 80 days as part of the Government’s liquor policy envisaging total booze ban in ten years were lifted in accordance with the amendments brought in on Thursday even as the war within the Congress over the dilution of the liquor policy intensified further.
Bars and retail liquor shops functioned normally across the State on Sunday with the Government issuing an order on Saturday revoking its own order issued in August declaring all Sundays as dry days (no-booze days). However, retail outlets remained closed on Sunday in some places because of confusions regarding the Government order.
Boozers thronged bars and retail liquor outlets on Sunday as they used to do before October 2, the day the Sunday-dry-day system was introduced. It was on the last Gandhi Jayanti day the State's Congress-led Government began implementing its Prohibition-in-ten-years policy by observing Sundays as dry days and closing down ten percent of the retail booze outlets.
As many as 418 bars - of the State's total of 730 - closed on March 31 are still out of operation but these bars were not closed as part of the (now-amended) liquor policy but due to lack of the required facilities. The remaining 312 bars are in operation thanks to a High Court ruling staying the Government order to close them down as per the liquor policy.
However, owners of several of these 418 bars said that they hoped to begin operations soon as the Government has now changed its policy. As the per the changes in the policy announced by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy last Thursday, the 418 bars will be permitted to run wine and beer parlours.
The only difference that has taken place in the liquor sector compared to the pre-October situation is that the working time of the bars has been cut down by two-and-a-half hours a day. As per the new system, bars can function only from 9.30 am to 10.00 pm. The retail liquor outlets would function from 10.00 am to 9.00 pm.
“liquor is such a touchy thing in Kerala that no Government should dare to touch it,” said a boozer outside a retail outlet in Thrissur. “It is like the advice given to Napoleon not to walk upon Moscow. The Government had thought for several years to frame this liquor policy but it had to amend it in just a few months,” he added.
In the meantime, the war in the ruling Congress over the changes the Government brought in to the liquor policy intensified on Sunday with senior leaders stepping up their attacks against State party president VM Sudheeran for launching a campaign against the Government and the Chief Minister in the name of his protests against the changes brought to the policy.
Stopping short of demanding disciplinary action against Sudheeran, State Congress vice-president MM Hassan, a staunch advocate of the party’s A group led by Chandy, on Sunday accused his own party president of breaching organisational decency and discipline by moving against the Government headed by his own party.
Alleging that Sudheeran's attack on the Government would affect the prospects of the party-led UDF returning to power in the next election, former PCC chief K Muraleedharan MlA, belonging to the I group headed by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, wanted the State president to convene a meeting of the Government-party coordinating panel to discuss the issue.
The opposing groups in the Congress joined hands to fight their common enemy, Sudheeran, after he launched a scathing attack against Chandy and the Government for "going back" on the liquor policy which he had popularised through an all-Kerala march. He alleged that the act of changing the policy was equivalent to enforcing the liquor lobby’s interests on the people.